ORBITING is generated by a newly designed 3D-printer capable of creating ultra-light hollow sculptures that are filled with helium and subsequently freed automatically from the machine. The installation is intended to provide an environment where there is a transformation of the original significance of objects designated by a material culture, to an alternate metaphysical reality. When deprived of the strength of a primary meaning via replication, objects lose their weight, both conceptually and practically, to join a future transcendent vortex.
In the upper level of a bi-level structure a circular oversized vent, akin to a black hole, leads into the floor. Out of this opening multiple monochromatic objects continuously float upwards as if they are dwelling in weightlessness. As they approach the ceiling they are caught in a thermal stream that propels them to slowly orbit the upper realm of the space. As the audience traverses the space be- neath the orbit, they experience the occasional ascension of a new object. Upon leaving this viewing area the visitor exits via the lower level where the 3D printer can be seen creating and then releasing the objects into the upper level.
The objects resemble miniature references to motifs of cultural impact, for example spacecraft, smartphones, contemporary architecture and sculpture that function, in essence, as a pantheon of modernity. In flight, they have suspended their previous significance and propelled to infinitely circulate in zero gravity. The scene suggests visual references from space flight to space debris, but also to the encyclopedic collections of objects as found in the early Wunderkammer, the cabinets of curiosities of the European Renaissance.