Installation view, Working On it: New Canadian Sculpture, The Beaverbrook Art Gallery, January 20 - May 12, 2024, Fredricton New Brunswick, Canada
100 Closest Stars, (‘21 & ‘23) star data, pigmented filament and magnetic hardware, 25 signed numbered works / Ed. 10. Designed in New York. Made in Canada.
installation view, What If, December -January, 2021, The Blue Building Gallery, K’jipuktuk | Halifax N.S. Canada
Use all the components of any given number of elements, use them all with equal importance and try to find an equidistant scale so that certain steps are no larger than others. It’s a spiritual and democratic attitude toward the world. -Karlheinz Stockhausen
100 Closest Stars (2021), star data, pigmented filament and magnetic hardware. signed numbered, 1/ Ed. 3. Designed in New York. Made in Canada. Collection of the Royal Bank of Canada
installation view, The Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kitchener Waterloo Canada, June 2018 to the present
Each object in this series represents the space between stars. The collection of sculptures are based on astronomical data from NASA. In June 2018, the work was installed in the Atrium of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. Two years later, in December 2020 the work became part of the permanent collection to ensure it remains on view, for the public good.
100 Closest Stars (2016), star data, pigmented filament and magnetic hardware. AP/ Ed. 3 Collection The Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
studio view, 56 Bogart Street, Bushwick Brooklyn, June 2016
Two years before the installation at PI this work grew from my relationship with the GIS community in New York City. Out of curiosity I studied mapping through evening classes and attended lectures about geospatial analysis. The community was very open and engaging. One evening in 2016, after a GEONYC lecture on ‘voronoi’ geometry, I could see the potential it had for sculpture right away and mentioned this to my friend, a Scottish data scientist named Stuart Lynn, that led to a python script of open source HABHYG dataset to generate 100 files, scaled to sculptural proportions in Rhino 5, and 3d printed by Voodoo Manufacturing in Bushwick Brooklyn.
100 Closest Stars (2016), star data, pigmented filament and double-sided tape.
This work was first shown at CARTO on a long corrugated metal ‘table’ in Bushwick Brooklyn, for Bushwick Open Studios, 2016 (photo: Dan Rushton). The pop-up installation organized by Jeff Ferzoco and Stuart Lynn who worked at Carto at the time.
100 Closest Stars (2016), star data, pigmented filament, on corrugated metal and poplar.
Related work: The Effect Effect (2012) pop-up installation organized by Jeff Ferzoco and Stuart Lynn at Carto for Bushwick Open Studios (New York: 2016)
installation view, courtesy of The Perimeter Institute
Krista Blake, then Catalyst for Imagination & Culture (2018-2020), installed these works in PI with assistance from Sebastian Koever and Alan Zeberek. Each object is toggled to the feature wall, along seams of anodized aluminum cladding, without penetrating the surface. components for the magnetic hardware assembly come from Spanneur & Lee Valley Tools.
AP / Ed. 3
Visual and other attributes, like dimensions names and colours, distinguish individuals from a crowd. Stockhausen puts it this way: ‘The stars are organized in a serial way. Whenever you look at a certain star sign you find a limited number of elements with different intervals. If we more thoroughly studied the distances and proportions of the stars we’d probably find certain relationships of multiples based on some logarithmic scale or whatever the scale may be.”
Related work: The Effect Effect (2012) three tessellating aluminum sculptures, 27 x 18 x 18 inches each, presented with Romer Young Gallery, San Francisco: 2012
The works are connected to a history of conceptual are and printmaking in Nova Scotia. Designed in New York and made in Nova Scotia Canada by a master printer, Moh Issu. The entire collection is an edition of 3 with 1 artist proof. Individual works within the series are available in an edition of ten.
25 of 100 Closest Stars, 2021 & 2023,, pigmented filament, magnetic hardware, designed in New York, made in Canada, in an edition
Individual works from the series are available through The Star Store, in an edition of ten, because a work of art can change your life.
These objects are not painted; the pigment is in the material. Remarkably painterly for this process, filament in 33 shades of primary, secondary and tertiary colours (fluorescent, opaque and pastel) respond to repositioning and light falling across the geometry.
Every object in the collection has an astronomical name and number. This information is engraved on the back of each object with the title, date and place of manufacture.
100 Closest Stars: 1-25 of the complete series based on astronomical data from NASA, filament, magnetic mount, colour & dimension vary
100 Closest Stars: 76 - 100 of the complete series based on astronomical data from NASA, filament, magnetic mount, colour & dimension vary
100 Closest Stars: 51-75 of the complete series based on astronomical data from NASA, filament, magnetic mount, colour & dimension vary
100 Closest Stars: 26 to 50 of the complete series based on astronomical data from NASA, filament, magnetic mount, colour & dimension vary
related work: The Sphere (1994) 3 x 3 x 3 inches, stack of 1000 loose sheets of acetate, presented in 1:1 with SL Simpson Gallery, Toronto, collection Allan McCollum (photo: Anna @ NSCAD)
related work: Monotypes (2012) 16 x 20 inches
“To have emotion, to be moved, is to feel the impersonal within us, to experience Genius as anguish or joy or safety or fear. The life that maintains the tension between the personal and the impersonal … is called poetic.” - Giorgio Agamben, Profanations (Zone Books: 2007) p. 14-15
related work: The Thing #5, poplar multiple, ed. 500, presented with The Thing Quarterly, San Francisco: 2008
Related work: The Feelings Wheel, Julia Wilcox: 1982
“The Feelings Wheel can help people recognize and communicate what they are feeling. The inner circle is labeled with primary feelings (mad, sad, scared, joyful, powerful, and peaceful). the outer rings contain names of secondary feeling ha related to the primary ones. Use the Feelings Wheel to Describe how you are feeling.” #cmhanl Canadian Mental Health Association, Newfoundland Labrador
related work: Monotypes (2014) 24 x 30 inches, monotype