photograph by Alexander Maris, 2008
In 2008 I was commissioned by Kielder Partnership to produce a new artwork for their Observatory, an innovative low-slung wooden outlook tower, designed by Charles Barclay.
The main outcome of the project was a 100 year star-diary, a book made in collaboration with Professor Ray Sharples and the designer Denis Moskowitz, accompanied with a limited edition set of posters featuring 5 key star events.
The period of 100 years seemed to translate stellar time into terms that human consciousness can grasp; while a diary which lasts 100 years seemed to translate the everyday scope of human concerns into a cosmic time scale. It is a book one expects to gift through generations.
The observatory itself is sited on a hillside, scarred with the residue of clear-cut sitka, just beyond James Turrel's 'sky-space', where the looking is entirely ocular.
Kielder Observatory
Architect: Charles Barclay, 2008
These days most star-watching is done with the aid of computers, so there was a requirement to provide power. As the site is off-grid, this was done through the installation of a windmill turbine, and to the blades of this I added a poem.
space arcs
light eclipses
time bends
windmill turbine with text, Alec Finlay, 2008
photograph by Alexander Maris, 2008
Intimations
No comments:
Post a Comment