Orla Fox

The conversation with Professor Andy Newsam continued with the placement of the sculpture. My first suggestion was that the sculpture could be situated in or around the Institute, however, Andy told me how there may being difficulty considering the ARI is situated in the Science Park which is owned by another company, therefore installation would become an issue.

Andy suggested to me the possibility of considering exhibiting the sculpture in the window of the Art & Design Building which is directly opposite the ARI, where in the window of the building, a telescope could be placed directly pointing at the sculpture. In this way, the researchers inside the ARI could become an active participant in the piece, and therefore transform the suspended sculpture into an interactive and performative exhibition. This poses some existential questions: if something is observed, does the thing itself transform? does something only come into existence once it is perceived? What happens when the theoretical becomes tangible? Hereby, the quantum worlds and theoretical astrophysical worlds align.

Artists like Rohini Devasher have produce reflective work on this idea of ‘the observer’, particularly through the lens of Astronomy. In One Hundred Thousand Suns (2024), a video installation based on the work of the Kodaikanal observatory in India, following the multi-generational projects of observing and photographing the sun. The act of observing within the film becomes a perpetual and meditative process, the astronomer is no longer passive in their objectiveness but transforms into subject. These considerations of the observer is a factor I would like to replicate within my practice.