VOID

VOID @ St John on Bethnal Green, London  21 June – 7 July  2016
Artists: Louise Beer, Jane Grisewood, John Hooper, Rebecca Huxley, Melanie King, Joshua Space and  Sarah Sparkes. Talk from Chris Welch, Professor of Space
Engineering at the International Space University in Strasbourg, France.
   

My Black on Black: series of 22 drawings plus one wall hanging explore darkness, blackness – the void – through different black paints on black paper (31 x 31 each/ installation 190  x 126cm; wall hanging 250 x 150cm). Black Hole series: 20 photographs present a typology of voids found in numerous locations around the world (21 x 21cm each / installation 164 x 135cm).  Blacker than Black:  The optical black surface was developed specially for space telescopes and satellites as it absorbs almost all light (30 x 30cm) .

Transit of Mercury

UCL Observatory, Mill Hill, London, 9 May 2016
At the observatory as an artist-in-residence it was thrilling to witness the transit of Mercury. Mercury is seen as a tiny black dot crossing the vast majestic red sun, our nearest star. My photograph was taken outside with a Sony compact camera through H-alpha filter on the Solarscope.

Aether #3 London

Aether#3 @ Imperial College, London, 29 April – 23 May 2016

The artists, using various processes, explore seemingly unrepresentable and unimaginable phenomena in outer space. I am exhibiting Accretion: black hole & quasar, comprising two drawings, with co-curators  Melanie King and Louise Beer, and Emma Backlund, Myka Baum, Marianne Bjornmyr, Lucy Eldridge, Susan Eyre, Adam Ferris, Michaela French, Zanny Mellor, Lisa Pettibone, and Himali Singh Soin.
Accretion: black hole & quasar reflects positive and negative, stillness and movement. Ink on paper, each 40 x 50 cm.

 

 

 

Aether #2 Berlin

Aether #2 Berlin @ Jarvis Dooney Galerie, Berlin
20 February – 2 April 2016

Aether, co-curated by Melanie King, Louise Beer and gallery owner Michael Dooney, brought together 14 international artists who share a fascination with the universe and beyond.  Using various methods of photography they explore relationships between astronomy, matter, time and space.
Exhibitors: Louise Beer, Lauren Franklin, Michaela French, Jane Grisewood, Katie Goodwin, Osheen Harruthoonyan, Jaden Hastings, Barry W. Hughes, Melanie King, Clare Krouzecky, Casey Moore, Sophy Rickett, Kate Robertson, Maija Tammi.
My Black Light: Eclipse print sequence traces the moon crossing the sun during an annular solar eclipse, taken on 20 May 2012, 17:31pm to 8:38pm, at the McMath-Pierce solar telescope on Kitt Peak while artist-in-residence at NOAO, Arizona, USA.
Nine Giclee prints (30 x 24cm), edition of ten.

Mauna Kea: Sky Island

Artist-in-Residence at Mauna Kea observatories, Hawaii, USA 
1 – 28 November 2015

IMAGES TO FOLLOW

The one-month Mauna Kea residency (following Kitt Peak in Arizona and Cerro Tololo in Chile in 2012) was a phenomenal experience, especially working with three significant observatories: Gemini (I was based in the headquarters in Hilo), Keck and Subaru . I spent hours observing the constant movement in the massive sanctuary-like structures where engineers worked tirelessly on Mauna Kea. The summit was breathtakingly beautiful and exhilarating, a ‘sky island’, towering 40% into the atmosphere at 4205 metres (13,796ft), despite the zero temperatures and low oxygen. Everything changed at sunset as a magical golden glow morphed into a deep red before darkness came. The experience of spending time in the three observatories was dramatic in every way, making it difficult to find words to describe the intensity and awe of seeing and feeling of this cosmological wonder.

Aether continued…

Aether Seminar, Friday 17 April, 1 – 4 pm
Ground Floor Lecture Theatre, UAL, 272 High Holborn
In response to the exhibition, the co-curators Melanie King and Louise Beer discussed art and science and the philosophical implications of cosmological research with speakers Dr Michelle Lochner and Dr Donnache Kirk from UCL, and Dr Jane Grisewood from UAL.

Aether #1

 Aether @ UAL Showroom gallery, London
15 April – 5 July 2015

Exhibiting Black Light: Eclipse with co-curators Melanie King and Louise Beer, along with Robert Bell, Jon Clair, Jared Davis, Sarah Fontais, Lauren Franklin, Jaden Hastings, David Moore, Lara Morrell and Sophy Rickett. The print sequence  traces the moon crossing the sun during an annular solar eclipse on 20 May 2012, 17:31pm to 8:38pm, at the McMath-Pierce solar telescope on Kitt Peak while artist-in-residence at NOAO, Arizona, Nine Giclee prints (30 x 24cm), edition of 10.