2010–2013: BAWAG CONTEMPORARY
Katie Paterson
Inside this desert
13/9/2012—11/11/2012
BAWAG Contemporary Wien presents the first solo exhibition of Scottish artist Katie Paterson in Austria. Katie Paterson is concerned with conveying unimaginably vast or distant processes in nature or the universe, transforming them using everyday objects or materials and reducing them to human dimensions. To realize her projects, she utilizes advanced technological achievements, from satellites to telescopes, as well as the expertise of various scientists, to engage in an intimate, poetic, and philosophical exploration of nature, ecology, geology, and cosmology.
The exhibition includes a selection of Katie Paterson's recent works, such as Ancient Darkness TV (2009), The Dying Star Letters (2011), and 100 Billion Suns (2011–2012).
The project 100 Billion Suns was originally created for the opening of the Venice Biennale in 2011. The work is a reconstruction of the history of gamma-ray bursts, the brightest explosions in the universe, whose brightness is a hundred billion times greater than that of the sun. For this work, Paterson created confetti from pieces of paper, individually color-matched to these cosmic phenomena. Each confetti blast generates a miniature version of these great explosions in less than a second. The confetti cannon was fired at regular intervals at unspecified locations, ranging from large squares to small alleyways, during the Venice Biennale. During the exhibition, the confetti cannon will be fired once a day at 4 p.m.
The Dying Star Letters is a series of letters that the artist sent out to inform others about the death of stars. In order to write these letters, Paterson was notified by astronomical institutions whenever a star exploded. Once the artist was informed that a star had died, she would write a letter and send out the news of its death. The letters, written by hand or machine on various types of paper of different sizes, are displayed in a vitrine in the gallery.
As part of Ancient Darkness TV, darkness from the edge of the universe is broadcast. For this project, Paterson collaborated with astronomers from the W. M. Keck Observatory in Mauna Kea to transmit an image of the "darkness from ancient times" via a New York television station. The one-minute transmission showed the darkness at the farthest point of the observed universe nearly 13.2 billion years ago, shortly after the Big Bang and long before the Earth formed, when stars, galaxies, and the first light began to emerge. The material is shown in the gallery as a continuous loop.
Curator: Christine Kintisch
Press: Christina Werner
The exhibition includes a selection of Katie Paterson's recent works, such as Ancient Darkness TV (2009), The Dying Star Letters (2011), and 100 Billion Suns (2011–2012).
The project 100 Billion Suns was originally created for the opening of the Venice Biennale in 2011. The work is a reconstruction of the history of gamma-ray bursts, the brightest explosions in the universe, whose brightness is a hundred billion times greater than that of the sun. For this work, Paterson created confetti from pieces of paper, individually color-matched to these cosmic phenomena. Each confetti blast generates a miniature version of these great explosions in less than a second. The confetti cannon was fired at regular intervals at unspecified locations, ranging from large squares to small alleyways, during the Venice Biennale. During the exhibition, the confetti cannon will be fired once a day at 4 p.m.
The Dying Star Letters is a series of letters that the artist sent out to inform others about the death of stars. In order to write these letters, Paterson was notified by astronomical institutions whenever a star exploded. Once the artist was informed that a star had died, she would write a letter and send out the news of its death. The letters, written by hand or machine on various types of paper of different sizes, are displayed in a vitrine in the gallery.
As part of Ancient Darkness TV, darkness from the edge of the universe is broadcast. For this project, Paterson collaborated with astronomers from the W. M. Keck Observatory in Mauna Kea to transmit an image of the "darkness from ancient times" via a New York television station. The one-minute transmission showed the darkness at the farthest point of the observed universe nearly 13.2 billion years ago, shortly after the Big Bang and long before the Earth formed, when stars, galaxies, and the first light began to emerge. The material is shown in the gallery as a continuous loop.
Curator: Christine Kintisch
Press: Christina Werner