windmill for an observatory



windmill turbine with text, Alec Finlay, 2008
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
 
Alec Finlay, with Professor Ray Sharples and Denis Moskowitz, 2008

Intimations





No comments:

Post a Comment