You Are Here, a brief description

Upshot at MIA

You Are Here is a mixed media sculptural installation that recreates the constellations of the night sky in physical form, studding them with starlight and suspending them overhead to create a life-size stellarium. 

fig 1

You Are Here was inspired by my first look at a celestial atlas and its detailed illustrations of the constellations in corporeal form, a menagerie of wild and domesticated animals, reptiles, insects, creatures of the sea, birds in flight, symbolic objects, heroines, heroes and mythological beasts all posed in a celestial tableau. The more I looked at these illustrations the more I wanted to be among these stellar constellations, surrounded by their physical presence.

fig 2

Upon studying the distinctive features of celestial atlases I discovered there are two ways constellations are depicted, the internal view, as we see them from earth looking up into he sky (fig 1) and the external view, as they are seen from above looking down toward the earth (fig 2). Seeing both these front and back views only strengthened my desire to transform the constellations into three-dimensions, completing a metamorphosis of sorts, from points of light in the sky to basic shapes to illustrated figures to physical form.

Ursa major and minor in fading light

The animal constellation figures have been created through a kind of craft-taxidermy, using flocking for fur and sequins for scales among other materials. 

Capella the Goat flocked

The sequin scales of Draco the dragon

The human constellations have been cobbled together from tailor and dress forms, wig heads, boot trees and mannequin parts

boot trees and mannequin limbs

representing generic lay figures or mannequins that the viewer can project onto, placing themselves in the center of this fanciful universe.

Perseus in Progress

Perseus in flight

You Are Here began as a project of Creative Capital in 2009 This accumulative installation premiered in 2013 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music as part of Next Wave Art 
and is on view at the South Terminal Gallery at the Miami International Airport thru Spring 2016.

constellations and air travel