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Cerith Wyn Evans
Astrophotography - Stages of photographic development by Siegfried Marx (1987), 2007

Installation view: Cerith Wyn Evans "The What If?... Scenario (after LG)", Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna,
Photo: Gregor Titze, 2013

Collection

Cerith Wyn Evans

Installation view: The Kaleidoscopic Eye: Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan, 2009
Photo: Watanabe Osamu | Mori Art Museum

Installation with glass chandelier, light bulbs, computer with morse code unit, texts on Astrophotography by R. Budell, W. J. Roberton, S. B. Tritton on monitor
260 x 220 x 220 cm (chandelier)
Overall dimensions variable

Chandeliers are over-determined symbols of luxury, fantasy and grandeur. In using them, Cerith Wyn Evans creates a sense of theatrical occasion. However, like most of the artist's previous work, the installation contains a self-reflexive criticality of the conditions of its reception. In some sense, the work aims to disrupt any modernist notions of the 'purity' of an artwork, and seems to acknowledge, as well as send up, Michael Fried's Modernist dogma and well-known critique of Minimalism as an 'impure' theatrical encounter. The use of crystal is also poignant as it is a material that is known to channel energy, a natural transmitter that, in this case, has been 'hijacked' to transmit an encrypted language from elsewhere. The Murano chandelier, created by the masters of Luce Italia, renders Morse code from a text driven through a hidden computer. The text is an excerpt from 'Astrophotography - Stages of photographic development’ edited by Siegfried Marx (1987), and discusses in great detail the technical considerations of photographing stars and planets. With the advent of Astrophotography- it was discovered that astral bodies (stars, planets and galaxies) – which were estimated to be millions of light years away - had been erroneously named and catalogued after microscopic inconsistencies within photographic emulsion. Solar systems identified from particles of dust, galaxies from dandruff.

CURRENT LOANS

Group exhibition: The Fest - Between Representation and Revolt
Venue: MAK Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna
Curator: Brigitte Felderer
December 14, 2022 - May 7, 2023

*1958 in Llanelli, United Kingdom | Living and working in London, United Kingdom

Excerpt from Astrophotography, edited by Siegfried Marx

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