A past still to come
Prism, photographs, paper, aragonite crystals, black obsidian sphere and disc, spotlight, 2015.
A reference table for the exhibition 3 different nights, recurring and a storyboard for the future lecture-performance.
The exhibition title 3 different nights, recurring references a note made by William Parsons in the mid-1840s on a drawing of a galaxy. Using the Leviathan telescope he built at Birr Castle, William Parsons was the first to reveal the spiral nature of galaxies. In an age predating photography, Parsons repeated his drawings over three nights in order to prove his observation.
Interested in the moment before definition, A past still to come explores the dynamic of practice and representation and the levels where identity and time coincide. Displayed alongside a series of photograms made of circles of light, and creating a dialogue between the conceptual and the material, the final print is not made, the prism resting on the vitrine’s surface.
Accompanied by a wire model of the structure of a biaxial crystal and a wire model of a corresponding light wave emerging from it. When a ray of light enters a biaxial crystal, such as aragonite in a certain direction, the light spreads out as a cone inside the crystal and emerges as a hollow cylindrical beam. This curious effect was discovered by William Rowan Hamilton and Humphrey Lloyd, contemporaries of Parsons in 1832 in Trinity College Dublin, and furthered the wave theory of light versus the theory of light as a particle.
Installation at 3 different nights, recurring at the Irish Museum of Modern Art
Prism, photographs, paper, aragonite crystals, black obsidian sphere and disc, spotlight, 2015.
A reference table for the exhibition 3 different nights, recurring and a storyboard for the future lecture-performance.
The exhibition title 3 different nights, recurring references a note made by William Parsons in the mid-1840s on a drawing of a galaxy. Using the Leviathan telescope he built at Birr Castle, William Parsons was the first to reveal the spiral nature of galaxies. In an age predating photography, Parsons repeated his drawings over three nights in order to prove his observation.
Interested in the moment before definition, A past still to come explores the dynamic of practice and representation and the levels where identity and time coincide. Displayed alongside a series of photograms made of circles of light, and creating a dialogue between the conceptual and the material, the final print is not made, the prism resting on the vitrine’s surface.
Accompanied by a wire model of the structure of a biaxial crystal and a wire model of a corresponding light wave emerging from it. When a ray of light enters a biaxial crystal, such as aragonite in a certain direction, the light spreads out as a cone inside the crystal and emerges as a hollow cylindrical beam. This curious effect was discovered by William Rowan Hamilton and Humphrey Lloyd, contemporaries of Parsons in 1832 in Trinity College Dublin, and furthered the wave theory of light versus the theory of light as a particle.
Installation at 3 different nights, recurring at the Irish Museum of Modern Art
Wire model of the Fresnel Wave Surface, 19th Century, possibly by Soleil, Paris. Courtesy of the School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin. 40 x 30 x 20 cm. Wire model of an orthorhombic crystal, c. late 19th, early 20th century, maker unknown. Courtesy the Department of Geology, Trinity College Dublin. 27.5 x 20.5 x 15 cm
Sir William Parsons, Whirlpool Galaxy Sketch, mid-1840s. Courtesy of Birr Trustee Company, The Birr Scientific & Heritage Foundation. Pencil on paper, 30 x 40 cm. His drawings are reported to have influenced Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’, as the drawings were reproduced by Camille Flammarion, a French writer who popularised Parson’s vision at the time.
