Heliocentric
(Maastricht / Mosae Forum 21-37)
Semiconductor consists of artist duo Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt (Great Britain). In their work human experience and physical space (created by man) take up central position. Every work has a specific technical approach in which the duo tries to stretch to the limits the potentials of sight, hearing, time and scale. Current assumptions about reality are countered and we are challenged to mull over the question what position to take in on this planet.
For Heliocentric the artists developed a special device that traces the sun’s orbit. From three separate locations on earth the sun is being traced during one whole day by means of time-lapse photography. The power of the light, constantly centred in the image, is at times interrupted by cloud formations and earthly elements. At other times the light is rendered as a discoloration or aureola. In art history the ‘capturing of light’ or the light as part of the landscape have been central motifs. Conversely, Semiconductor has turned the object that emanates light into the artwork’s subject matter. Thanks to their historical interest in the sun and the most recent techniques the artists have set the illusion straight that the sun moves through the sky. With a keen sense of aesthetics it is pointed out that we in fact live on a rotating planet.