Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
Kingston University
Art + Cinema = Dark Energy
35 works: 25 art works (sculpture, photographs and installations); 10 Motion pictures
27 June – 31 August 2008.
This solo exhibition at the Centro Cultural de Cascais, Portugal, in 2008, consisted of 25 Art Works and 10 Motion Picture Installations. The body of work presented was the result of an international interdisciplinary project which involved collaborations in original research at CERN (Geneva), SLAC (Stanford, California) and the European Space Agency. McMullen produced seven new art works for this exhibition that focused on the paradigm shift affected in contemporary physics through the discovery of ‘dark energy’, a force that repels gravity.
The works consisted of four Constructions: ‘And the Wave Came', (3mx1.60m), Steel/Burnt Graphite /Wood /Oil; 'Holy Ghost', 'Trinity and 'Fractal Line', each construction (2mx1m), Steel/Burnt Graphite/Lead/Wood, and three Motion Picture installations: 'Stand and Learn', (40 mins, on monitor); 'Moment After Singularity' (5mx1.75m), mixed media installation with motion picture, and 'Roman Lead Revisited', Motion Picture installation with archaeological lead and sand.
McMullen’s primary research concern was the visualisation of the deeply abstract concept of ‘dark energy’ that was the focus of scientific mapping methods in 2007-8. McMullen’s research methods drew on extensive discussions and exchanges with theoretical physicists and their experimental counterparts along with working in the prototype engineering workshops in CERN in 2007. Additional research visits informing McMullen’s art works for the exhibition took place in SLAC, Centre Pompidou and the European Space Agency in 2008. The resulting sculptures and motion picture installations used techniques in laser measurement and laser building. A series of photographs also documented McMullen’s first interview with the French philosopher Bernard Steigler in 2008.
Curated by Salvato Telles de Menezes, the exhibition was funded by the Centro Cultural de Cascais, Portugal, the European Culture Fund, British Energy, Fundação Dom Luís I, Portugal, and Sony.
Catalogue: ISBN 978 9728986193, 56pp. and installation photographs.
