BLUE SHIFT

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Blueshift and redshift are terms used in astronomy. They refer to shifts in the spectrum towards the blue or red ends, measured by changes in wavelength and frequency. 

 

Blueshift indicates that an object is moving towards the viewer. For example, the Andromeda Galaxy is moving towards our own galaxy so, when observed from earth, its light is undergoing a blueshift. The larger the blueshift, the faster the object is moving.

 

Thus, in a contracting universe, cosmological blueshift would be observed. By contrast, the expanding universe gives a cosmological redshift, and the expansion is observed to be accelerating.

 

The work Blue Shift links the galactic and the cosmological to the individual(s) who would sit on the chair and to the institution that issues the chair for standard use. The room’s architecture asserts boundaries to the work. The physical tension of the tape connecting the chair to the room suggests a bigger tension between the chair and the architecture and a question about which is holding what in place. The multiple lines of tape rush past the observer. Even as they place the chair within the structure’s boundaries they also point beyond, hinting at other possibilities. 

 

Mixed media site-specific installation – natural light, chair, neutral density filter, re-cast window glass, tape, Slade School of Fine Art, University College London 2013.