photo © Stephan Rohner

TRANSIT OF EARTH

2022, LED-Mosaic, 210 × 650 × 20 cm, video, 46:31’, loop, silent

edition of 3, 1/3 collection Kunstmuseum St. Gallen

«Transit of Earth» is a comprehensive cosmological work inspired by the art historical pictures of the month. It consists of a fragmentary LED mosaic. The dominant sun floats in a tunnel of filaments that intersects with an imaginary orbit of the moon and planets. The latter are textured with projection maps from NASA's archive.  The solar model and tunnel were computed from animated fractal "noise" textures. There are 12 chapters, representing the signs of the zodiac - starting with Pisces - with the colors traditionally associated with each sign. The chronology of the year determines the chronology of the artist's own images and filmic sequences,. By means of a magnifying glass that wipes from the left and right in a constant rhythm, as well as illuminated verses of a poem irregularly scrolling by (see below), the artist's visual and poetic world appears for brief moments in the cosmos. Viewers watch the fascinating change of perspectives, worlds, and their own images of memory, and are immersed in a universe of changing meanings.

LIGHT!

transparent

wherever it strikes

it first reveals 

a day in march

the rays penetrate deeper

twisting and moving matter

tuning and reconfiguring

exposing ever new structures

disseminating ad infinitum

the pool

teeming with swimmers

impossible to number

suddenly

as by an inscrutable decree

they begin to wiggle

in hypnotic synchrony

forming a frenzied gyre

the center a writhing node

like the pupil of a demonic eye

I remember 

the two hostile bodies

and the shock when they collided

the outcome

a calculation of probabilities

of chance 

good and back luck

like a game of cards

they dance to 

a monophonic medieval tune

played on a stringed instrument

with a long-held bottom D as a drone

a languid amorous style of performance

with capricious rhythms at the end.

 once 

at the top of a hill 

somewhere amidst an undulating landscape

 now 

down here in this familiar concavity

 the passage lost a dissociative fugue 

maybe a shift in the landscape itself 

maybe bound to occur again 

changing everything

 even obliterating life itself 

 in this cavity

 light thrives in disarray 

but there is a woman 

who can capture it and 

shape it in some

 truly beautiful forms

 this she does in the blakean method 

by cleansing the cavity 

with corrosives and heat 

for an instant eliciting  

a state of light 

pristine and un- 

seen