Gamma-Ray Bursts are the most powerful and brightest phenomena in the Universe and similar to a Supernova, occur at the end of a star’s life. Within a few seconds, a collapsing star can emit billions of times the energy of our sun in two single, polar jets of light vaporising everything in its path. The jets can continue for billions of years: the energy and mass of a supermassive star, condensed in two polar cones of high frequency light, never to meet again.
My initial plan for my project outcome was to produce two sculptures: one based on supernovae and one based on GRB’s. Although I do not have a physical outcome on GRB’s, during this project, I have built up a store of research that will develop into future works, particularly in tandem with my supernova sculpture.
For this area of research, I have been in continual dialogue with astrophysicist Cairns Turnbull, a PhD researcher who specialises in GRB’s. Through our conversations I discovered the potential to recreate or emulate the appearance of the phenomena with light and projection. I have previously worked with light as a material, incorporating overhead projectors to explore ‘Interference Fringes’ a phenomenon that occurs when opposing light waves cross paths. The work of Bill Viola (1951-2024), a video and installation artist, is also an inspiration as he often utilised projection to materialise light and create immersive experiences for the audience.
The Veiling (1995) is an installation piece consisting of 2 films that are projected through layers of scrim creating a three-dimensional effect. I had planned to use this concept within the GRB project, projecting light beams through layers of scrim to produce a jet effect and emulating the cone-like shape of a GRB as its passes through space.
Exploring through the lens of the Alchemist-as-Observer, I was reminded of alchemist Robert Fludd (1574–1637) and his sketches of ‘Pyramid Lucus’ in Urszula Szulakowska’s The Alchemy of Light: Geometry and Optics in Late Renaissance Alchemical Illustration (2000). Fludd’s Pyramid Lucus refers to his concept of light that ’emanates from God’s divine vision’ (p. 169) represented in cone-like shapes, as illustrated below from ‘God’s eye’ or an event explosive in nature. The precise geometry that Fludd uses is similar to that of a GRB; as Cairns informs me, GRB’s differ from other astronomical events because of its unimaginable high energy exceeding all other phenomena and because of its intensely, highly energetic nature, produces its resultant geometric shape.
Another example of the overlapping of mysticism and GRB’s, Cairns tells me is the theory of Gabriel’s Horn, a figure in geometry that has an infinite surface area, but paradoxically, a finite volume. The name is derived from Christian Theology where the Angel Gabriel will one day blow his horn to announce Judgement Day, a visual and auditory link between the material world and the divine.
These conversations with Cairns took place during the process of creating my supernova sculpture, my methodologies became apparent in the outcome of the sculpture: my work is both practice-led and reflexive, my sculptural process intuitive. One of the largest pieces of copper began to curve as I bashed it, producing a cone-like shape, when it was time to connect the copper sheets, I decided on 2 cone-like sheets of copper to provide the base, each positioned at polar opposite ends. Intuitively I had replicated the geometry of the GRB’s through reflexive practice. When Cairns visited the exhibition, he discussed with me the existence of Hypernovae (powerful supernova) that occur simultaneously with GRB’s, therefore, my sculpture materialised two astrophysical phenomena at once.
Editing an image of my sculpture through photoshop, I have created a speculative extension of Creation through Destruction (2026) which incorporates projection work that originates from the epicentre of the supernovae, expanding outward in cone-like shapes, visualising the path and nature of a GRB. Though this work remains speculative, it has potential with the incorporation of lights to explore fundamental events that occur in the cosmos, underpinned by alchemical concepts.
This speculative work provides possibilities for possible curatorial approaches when the sculpture is next exhibited. The lights could be accompanied by high-frequency audio, with internal light sources pulsing on and off to simulate the moment of explosion. This could evoke the dramatic release of energy associated with GRB’s and enhance the sculpture’s immersive and transformative qualities. I received some feedback on my copper sculpture, suggesting that the sculpture could be enhanced by some form of movement or additional lighting to further demonstrate this sense of transformation: adding the two beams of light would achieve this, transforming upon the textures and colours of the copper while extending the intention of the sculpture.
Dar, A. and De Rújula, A., (2004) Towards a complete theory of gamma-ray bursts. Physics Reports, 4054, p.203–278. Available at: https://cds.cern.ch/record/636942/files/0308248.pdf [Accessed 2 August 2026]
Szulakowska, U. (2000) The Alchemy of Light: Geometry and Optics in Late Renaissance Alchemical Illustration. Köln: Brill
Szulakowska, U. (2011) Robert Fludd and His Images of The Divine. The Public DomainReview [online]. Available at: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/robert-fludd-and-his-images-of-the-divine/ [Accessed 2 August 2026]
Gabriel’s Horn. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel%27s_horn [Accessed 1 August 2026]
Hanhardt, J.G., Perov, K. and Viola, B. (2015) Bill Viola. [online] London: Thames & Hudson.
NASA (2023) Gamma-ray Bursts: Harvesting Knowledge From the Universe’s Most Powerful Explosions – NASA Science. [online] science.nasa.gov. Available at: https://science.nasa.gov/universe/gamma-ray-bursts-harvesting-knowledge-from-the-universes-most-powerful-explosions/ [Accessed 2 Aug. 2026].