Sculptural Creations Based on Astronomical Phenomena

cannot travel faster than light. Bell’s theorem says that in any realityof this sort, information does not get around fast enough to explain the quantum facts:realitymust be non-local.” 4. Amit Goswami, TheSel/-AioareUniverse(New York Putnam, 1993) p. 2. 5. Quoted inJean Eisenstaedt, “Chercheursou artistes?Un point de w e tres relatif,” in Sm’eMufationsNo . 158 (Editions Autrement, 1995) p. 93. 6. I made this painting 3 years before Alcopley’s and Mandelbrojt’s paintings were published on the covers of Leonardo 27, No. 3 (1994). SCULPTURAL CREATIONS BASED ON ASTRONOMICAL, PHENOMENA Jiii MatouSekwithJiE Valoch, Milady Horikovk 23, Prague ’7,170 00, Czech Republic. Received 12June 1996.Acceptedfor publication by Rogerl? Malina. I do not want to point my finger in any particular direction. The structure of matter, with its “theory” mysteriously hidden from us, is everywhere. Rational science is changing to pure poesy. Straight lines have become curves. Numbers have different meanings. Art and science are becoming one. My interest in the phenomena of nature is a connectingfeature among my various activities.In 1992,I started to focus my attention on a topic that I personally identify with. The basis of my work consistsof translating information from a sphere outside of art to a form that can be applied in an autonomous manner, free from the influence of the human subject who is its creator. As artist’smaterial I use the stellar sky, as it is recorded in astronomical maps and tables. It is not an accident that of all possible scientific information , I choose data about the universe, Fig. 3.JWMatouEek, Untitled,sculpture of wooden sticks and neon tubes.The artist createsconstructionsbased on informationhe tin& in astronomical maps and tables.He manipulateseachpiece ’selements,which are based on informationhe fin& on individual stars. since our perception of it is beyond human experience. I transfer information such as magnitude, spectral type, speed of rotation and distance of the individual stars into three-dimensional (3D) linear forms (segments) according to a set system (Fig. 3). I am not interested in the information itself (which is accessible to all), but in using it as a starting point for 3D, sculptural creations. The meaning of the work is confirmed in the link between the pure beauty of the created structures and the preciselyfixed information upon which they are based. The segments are made of wooden sticks or neon tubes of different diameters . I seek various ways to manipulate the work‘s elements, which are derived from information about individual stars. Some of the elements are positioned side by side, in the order I found them in star catalogs. Some are represented in relief, combining constellations that are fixed exactly as if on a map of the sky. By connecting individual elements into dense units I make installations resembling star clusters. My work has become almost a ritual performed every day, one segment (star) after another. The resulting works have similarities but no two are the same. Artists’ Statements 269 ...