Cave soy ink print on tissue (16 × 9m when flat), powder coated stainless steel, water. W5 × L4m (height variable). 2023.
Installation view: A Stone Sky, Thames-Side Studios Gallery, London.
Cave considers the entwined darknesses of deep earth and deep space. Crystalline and mineral substances from the deep earth fuse with astronomical data to suggest the deep-earth as an instrument for coming to know the cosmos. Crystalline and mineral substances formed in the continuum of deep earth and deep space allow us to peer back into cosmic time, both as technologies and the geological record they hold. Whilst darkness often indicates uncertainty and lack of knowledge, Hill asserts that it’s through darkness when we can be most perceptive to the interconnectedness between earth and cosmos. Through it we are able to extend our kinship with the inorganic and expand consciousness of what constitutes nature.
The sculptural installation reworks telescope data from the James Webb Space Telescope’s MIRI camera which sees in the mid-infrared range, revealing intricate structures – the ‘delicate tracery of dust and stars’ – within the spiral arms of barred spiral galaxy NGC.
The sculpted form emulates a cavernous formation to provide an experience of intimate immensity: data is reworked into an ‘affective space’ that affords an imaginative and bodily engagement with the viewer. An underground pool reflects the print into an infinite night, confounding senses of inner and outer, earth and sky. Water being intrinsic to the sculpted formations and cavernous spaces found within most cave systems), it replaces mirror: its reflective surface standing in for the fabricated mirrors that are the light gathering components within many ground and space based telescopes.
The cave is paralleled with the photographic darkroom, and foregrounds material continuums between earth and space via the chemical and mineral transformations that take place in photography.
The sculptural installation reworks telescope data from the James Webb Space Telescope’s MIRI camera which sees in the mid-infrared range, revealing intricate structures – the ‘delicate tracery of dust and stars’ – within the spiral arms of barred spiral galaxy NGC.
The sculpted form emulates a cavernous formation to provide an experience of intimate immensity: data is reworked into an ‘affective space’ that affords an imaginative and bodily engagement with the viewer. An underground pool reflects the print into an infinite night, confounding senses of inner and outer, earth and sky. Water being intrinsic to the sculpted formations and cavernous spaces found within most cave systems), it replaces mirror: its reflective surface standing in for the fabricated mirrors that are the light gathering components within many ground and space based telescopes.
The cave is paralleled with the photographic darkroom, and foregrounds material continuums between earth and space via the chemical and mineral transformations that take place in photography.