»I noticed then and there […]: that, first and foremost, the heavens were an inquiry into man. Indeed, man is an inwards universe.«
This paradox became the leitmotif to Florian Schwarz for his project 'A Handful of Dust', which, over a period of four years, accompanied a gigantic astronomical research project to observatories in very remote places on five continents (locations: Chile, South Africa, Australia, Hawaii, California, Texas, Tenerife). The artist does not document, but insightfully links the distant view into the expanse of space with intimate views of the people and their lifeworlds in the surroundings of these institutes. 'A Handful of Dust' is an empathic and poetic voyage of discovery, meandering from the dusty ends of this world to the center of the universe, where our center is also situated—since we consist of 97% stardust. Also see publication: 'A Handful of Dust'
'Family Portrait', from the series 'A Handful of Dust', 5 parts, 360 cm x 60 cm (total)
'Family Portrait' can be regarded as the prologue to the series 'A Handful of Dust'. It is based on a photograph taken by space probe VOYAGER 1, which, just before exiting our solar system, was turned around by NASA for an instant in order to photograph Planet Earth (from a distance of 6.4 billion kilometers) - a tiny, pale blue dot floating in space. Integrating a text by astronomer Carl Sagan, 'Family Portrait' zooms in further on this tiny dot, Earth, from image to image until it is nothing but an abstract color field – and, at the same time, home to all life.
Installation-view: Museum of Art, Singen, Germany (2019) // Portraits (70 cm x 100 cm) combined with video-stills (26 cm x 20 cm, printed on cardboard) of different 24-hour-timelapses from the observatories/telescopes. See details below.
Total view: Timelapse #01 (Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii)
Total view: Timelapse #02 (Siding Spring Observatory, Australia)
Total view: Timelapse #03 (Cerro Tololo Observatory, Chile)
DETAIL: Timelapse #01
DETAIL: Timelapse #02
DETAIL: Timelapse #03
Installation-view: Museum of Art, Singen, Germany (2019)
Installation-view: Museum of Art, Singen, Germany (2019)
All images: DETAILS from 'A Handful of Dust'-installation @ Museum of Art, Singen, Germany
'Wanderer'-Installation, from the series 'A Handful of Dust', 8 Archival Pigment-prints on Japan Paper (35 cm x 50 cm each, framed), Pedestal with 5 texts (writings by the artist) on 5 stacks of DIN A 4-paper.
