Articles

Time and Space
by: Josephine Mills, Director/Curator
University of Lethbridge Art Gallery

It is particularly fitting that an exhibition titled Time & Space is the product of unrelated trips across Western Canada, chance interactions and the happy coinciding of similar concerns.  My interest in an exhibition related to astronomy began when I moved to Lethbridge after years in larger cities.  I could not help being struck by the splendour of the night sky that is visible when there is less manufactured light on the ground.  The idea of curating an exhibition with artists who are working with the data, imagery and concepts related to this area began to form in the back of my mind, but I did not have any specific direction to this project.

In 2005, the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon invited me to be one of the curators for Marking Time, an exhibition coinciding with my home province’s centennial. For this project, I did a whirlwind tour of studios in Saskatchewan including visiting with John Noestheden in Regina.  He introduced his practice by explaining that he is an avid amateur astronomer and that he explores his interest in physics through several art forms including sculpture, performance and works on paper.

 Noestheden’s “Imaging Drawings” immediately impressed me.  Ranging from drawing to the application of crystals and raw titanium ore to the paper’s surface, these deceptively simple works are based on Noestheden’s extensive research. For each ‘drawing,’ he works out a complex system for its production such as building a device to disperse the crystals onto the paper in accordance with a mathematical formula.  The imagery in the works is taken from older maps and contemporary astronomical codes that are used to locate stars. Selecting tiny details from these, Noestheden greatly magnifies them to produce visually stunning works that connect to the spectacle of the night sky itself.
 
My visit with Noestheden was the first step in bumping my interest in an exhibition related to physics from a vague idea to a clearer form. Shortly after this, I met with Dianne Bos in Calgary.  I was aware that Bos works extensively with pinhole photography, but once again I discovered that she too is a keen astronomer who follows developments in the scientific field while also playing with the imagery and the sense of awe intrinsic to the study of the night sky.  Since 2000, Bos has been producing pinhole photographs which resemble the images of celestial bodies that are generated by high technology imaging devices.  In fact, her photographs are ‘faked’ in that she stages them by using multiple pinholes and by manipulating the light source in relation to the long exposure time required for her low tech form.  On first glance, it is apparent that the patterns in the photographs take the form of galaxies and star systems.  A closer look reveals that the points of light are not documents of far off planets and stars, they are constellations of everyday objects like a light bulb, a candle or even a self-portrait of Bos.

The contrasting approaches to addressing astronomical imagery within these two artists’ practices had the potential for an engaging exhibition.  Noestheden’s work invites further investigation into the many layers involved both visually and in his background research whereas Bos takes a more eccentric interest in science based on the kind of personal fascination that pre-dates professional, academic standards – this is apparent in her choice of a continuing to use 19th century technology.  However, in terms of developing an exhibition, it seemed that another component was required. The last moment of serendipity occurred when I visited artists in the Optic Nerve residency at the Banff Centre.  In one of the dark, windowless studios in the basement adjacent to the pottery area, I found that third part: a mad scientist.  Calgary artist Joe Kelly had filled his space floor to ceiling with the materials he had brought from home: small motors, electronic components, new and out-dated audio equipment, assorted lenses, and boxes upon boxes of gears, gadgets and other gizmos.
 
As Kelly began to discuss things like how water functions in the transmission of light and early technologies for recording and projecting images, I knew that Time & Space had clicked into alignment.  Although Kelly’s previous work had not specifically focused on astronomy, his installation practice foregrounds the mechanics of technology and has included his construction of known pre-cinema apparatus as well as those he has devised out of such equipment as an automated tie rack. Furthermore, he frequently collaborates with composers to include original music as part of his installations. The whole effect connects to audiences in multiple ways and evokes the same kind of experience as the science centre component of a museum by creating a space where the structure and processes of the subject of the exhibition are revealed.  I knew that work from these three artists together would make a wonderfully diverse exhibition that explored the representation of the night sky from the perspective of the passionate and knowledgeable enthusiast.

Often with exhibitions that address a hard science topic, the curator will combine the work of scientists alongside the work of artists. For Time & Space, I chose to focus on the interdisciplinary nature of the artists’ investigation of astronomical imagery. Having spent the first half of my undergraduate degree as a biology major with a focus on genetics and then switching to art history, I have experienced the benefits of combining approaches from various fields of study and being encouraged to question the core assumptions in a given area.  As a result, I have continued to pursue interdisciplinary projects which open new avenues for exploration by working with theories and methods based on their relevance to the topic at hand, rather than preconceived ideas of the appropriate rules for a discipline.  Crossing over academic boundaries allows one to see what is taken for granted and to develop a clear idea of why one embraces visual art as the way to address the subject of one’s study.  Bos, Kelly and Noestheden all have a strong foundation in science and technology.  Both Bos and Noestheden read and discuss physics research with professional astronomers as part of their process for addressing historical and contemporary astronomical imagery while Kelly has conducted extensive research into old technologies for creating the impression of moving images as well as invented his own alternatives.

Bos, Kelly and Noestheden address knowledge about moons, comets or stars from an entirely different perspective than an academic astronomer. For centuries, scientists have created technology for the analysis of celestial bodies visible in the night sky.  From the data collected, they produce systems for interpreting information that is not visible to the human eye and for rendering this information both visible and comprehensible.  Early technologies simply magnified what was viewable from the surface of the earth, but recent developments have expanded to gather digital data and then represent this information in visual forms that are based on earlier depictions of the night sky.  Scientific researchers focus on aspects such as physical phenomena and principles.  The process of representation is secondary to their work – it is a means to assisting with other kinds of research questions. Bos, Kelly and Noestheden foreground the importance of visual representation within astronomy.  They each take their own approach to exploring the processes of rendering visible that which cannot be seen.

Time & Space includes a selection of Noestheden’s two-dimensional work addressing the history of scientific interpretation of the night sky and the shifts in representation of astronomical data as scientists developed their knowledge over the centuries.  Bos’s contribution consists of her photographs, projection devices and book/cameras.  With the latter, she has expanded on the already idiosyncratic quality of the homemade cameras by turning old books into objects for capturing imagery related to the subject of the text.  For Time & Space, she purchased Zane Grey’s novel The Light of Western Stars, transformed it into a pinhole camera, and photographed the landscape around Lethbridge.  Kelly created his installation Suite for M. Domestica for the exhibition.  In the work, two videos are looped at different lengths to create a constantly changing visual pairing and projected onto semi-spherical ‘screens’ that Kelly created from old covers for street lamps.  One video depicts insects as stills against a porch light bulb, the other is a time-lapse of a lunar eclipse.  Shot at greatly different shutter speeds, the two videos contrast in the way they both annihilate time, just as film deconstructed time and memory for us in its infancy.  The work also investigates the moon as navigational device: the light bulb mimics the lunar orb, further augmented by the spherical ‘screens’, and confuses the viewer as it did the insects captured on video.  Placed together in this exhibition, the work by these three artists creates a sense of wonder and delight like one experiences gazing up at the night sky while also inviting questions about the construction and presentation of the visual forms used in astronomy.