Gravity describes the force of attraction between objects. Unconsciously we accept its stipulations as a given law of human existence. Dwelling in zero gravity, therefore, is one of the most uncommon situations one would experience. This moment will demand a heightened alertness in order to respond to radically different parameters, both bodily and psychologically.
In my artistic work I´m interested in the most unlikely environments that can be fostered – to disorient the viewer and enable the exploration of new perspectives. Zero gravity provides such an environment. While gravity connotes seriousness and depth, microgravity or zero gravity associates with lightness and levity, suggesting a metaphor for freedom. It can be read as a condition that suspends prevailing reference models and asks to rethink the current situation.
Float! Thinktank21 and Black Hole Horizon are two preceding installation works that touch on the theme of microgravity: The former speculates on the political implications of zero gravity, utilizing a sensory deprivation tank as an environment for individual aesthetic experience. The work Black Hole Horizon, on the other hand, explores the reconfiguration of space by giant soap bubbles that are induced by sound and exist in an instantaneous moment of weightlessness.
Orbiting addresses the aesthetic potential of ascending sculptures. The overcoming of physical limitations creates an unreal atmosphere that guides the objects towards the ceiling of the exhibition space. Here they gradually engage in an orbital circulation, performing a slowly changing choreography. In physics the process of orbiting describes a constant falling around a gravitational center, an equilibrium of forces that leads into a state of uniform movement. The cluster of floating sculptures that circulate around an imaginary center is reminiscent of space debris and the Pacific trash vortex. At the same time it resembles a pantheon of objects, a state of higher order, in an in vitro simulation of orbital microgravity.