A Distant View II, III, IV
London, 2017
Steel, Plywood, Indian Ink, White LED. 70 × 70 × 8cm
In the A Distant View reliefs the viewer encounters a visceral, seemingly abstract composition. Upon closer inspection, identifiable patterns emerge, reminiscent of the moon’s surface. Responding to images transmitted to earth during the Lunar Orbiter missions of 1966-67 and constructed with the later laser scans (a series of binary data codes) used to shape an understanding of the moon’s topology, the works re-appropriate the visuals aids that constituted the first representations of the moon seen by the public.
Sculpted into this three-dimensional format, the reliefs reimagine the this hermeneutic experience, making tangible the collective memory of an alternate universe. However this process also reveals what it lost, through the unpopulated ‘gaps’ between scans and within the composition, where the data begins to fall away. Illuminated from the upper ridge, shadows appear to articulate these spaces, morphing and altering depending on the viewer’s standpoint. It is through this experience of the work, as both a physical object and a recollection of memory, that the pieces resonate and bring into question our own ability to reason and comprehend.
