Access Mundi
Installation, overhead projectors, black plexiglass, control box, 2017
Photographs by Eva Rosa Hollup ↗
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,
Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt,
It lies behind stars and under hills,
And empty holes it fills,
It comes first and follows after,
Ends life, kills laughter.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
Part of my contribution to the final bachelor exhibition at the Academy of Fine Arts in Oslo. Eight old overhead projectors arranged in a circle, black plexiglas squares blocking the light from each, control-box with an Arduino chip, power relays, and a whole lot of wires. Controls the flow so the overhead projectors turn on and off in cycle. The sound when each incandescent bulb and fan starts up could be described as sublime. Also leaves strong afterimages on the eyes in the total darkness between each projector.
Everything turns in circles and spirals with the cosmic heart until infinity. Everything has a vibration that spirals inward or outward — and everything turns together in the same direction at the same time. This vibration keeps going: it becomes born and expands or closes and destructs — only to repeat the cycle again in opposite current. Like a lotus, it opens or closes, dies and is born again. Such is also the story of the sun and moon, of me and you. Nothing truly dies. All energy simply transforms.
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun
Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.
― Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man