Space Between

Space Between

2017

porcelain, wood, paper, electronics

As we increasingly penetrating matter, observing micro- and nano-phenomena, our extended gaze is also reaching out to the distant landscapes beyond our planet. We are mapping distant formations, planets – in a quality of imagery like never before but the more sophisticated our instruments approach these phenomena, the more mysterious they become. Although the aim is to capture reality more and more accurately, we resort to visual “tricks” to do so, which is contradictory: the result is often a condensed “image” that tries to capture the essence of reality. 

Lithophane is an 18th century technique based on the fact that the surface of a porcelain relief, max. 4 mm thick, allows more light to pass through, where the material is thinner. In other words, lithophanes are negative relief porcelain slabs cast from hand-carved plaster reliefs. A lithophane is a phenomenon that is both relief and image (illuminated to give the effect of a black and white photograph).

The pictorial sources for the reliefs displayed here are transcriptions of “iconic” images from the history of astronomy.