A STARRY MESSENGER

2019
Hand-carved white alabaster, glass lenses, transparency film, plexiglass, steel
8x2x 4.5 feet

A new work by MDR explores time and space through combining anachronistic and contemporary aerial telescopic technologies. Modeled after Galileo Galilei’s telescope, this alabaster-carved sculpture presents a compound image stitching together various views captured by satellite surveillance systems. The image visible inside the telescope,  reveals a combination of satellite surveillance images randomly searched on the web by the artist.. 12 different images will be changed according to the moon cycle every time there is a new moon. 

The translucent stone, familiar to Tuscany where Galileo was born, suggests the clarity of his observational vision. The piece’s title is a translation of his 1610 pamphlet Sidereus Nuncius in which he first published his astronomical investigations, including the discovery of Jupiter’s moons, that provoked the ire of the Roman Catholic Church. A Starry Messenger allows the sky to look back at the Earth and humans to consider our relative position in space and time — historically and politically.

A Starry Messenger is part of the show Chronos Cosmos: Deep Time, Open Space a group show curated by Jessica Wilcox, on view at Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens, NYC

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