Composition of the Universe

Sculptural Installation

2010

 Composition of the Universe, IKON Gallery, Birmingham, UK (2011)

Composition of the Universe takes the current dominant model of the universe (74% dark energy, 22% dark matter, and 4% ordinary matter) and visualizes alternative models to represent the same figures.

The models represent the same breakdown, but depending on the use of different shapes, new yet equally complete universes are brought into being.

Visitors, especially children, are welcome to play with the wooden forms, the work is referencing a human compulsion to explain, quantify, and record our environment.

Composition of the Universe, IKON Gallery, Birmingham, UK (2011)

Composition of the Universe
Materials: wooden sculptures and oval carpet
Various sizes
Produced for Smooth Structures, Enough Room for Space at Smart Projectspace, Amsterdam, NL

Smooth Structures
Initiated by: Maarten Vanden Eynde & Marjolijn Dijkman
About Smooth Structures: The mathematician Martin Lo (Caltech, Pasadena, US), who discovered the Interplanetary Superhighway, a revolutionary model that changed space travel forever, is currently researching the “Brans’ Conjecture” theory with several other scientists. Lo invited Enough Room for Space to create artistic responses to such a hypothesis. Its links with other-worldliness suggest underlying meanings beyond the merely visual or verbal and confront us with the idea of the sublime, though not a simple wonder at the overwhelming beauty of endless darkness and search for truth, but a desire to control and own it indicative of our confident expansion into space and the persistent need to colonize.

Composition of the Universe, Casco Art Institute, Utrecht, NL, photo: Niels Moolenaar (2017)
Composition of the Universe, IKON Gallery, Birmingham, UK (2011)
Composition of the Universe, IKON Gallery, Birmingham, UK (2011)
Installation at Smart Projectspace, Amsterdam, NL (2010)