Constellations I & II

barbershop residency (2016)

BARBERSHOP RESIDENCY

Artists & Curators Jade Anderson and Kate Florence Knowlden collaborated for a one-week residency at the Barber Shop, a space run by Dyad Creative, surrounding the theme of star constellations.

Together they created an installation highlighting and pin pointing star constellations within the Northern Hemisphere. The viewer is able to experience the visual antics of the language that makes up the clusters by physically exploring the space, seeing these as separate arrangements as well as one system. This is an introduction to the ideology of star constellations.

Anderson responds to the theme by reading information on constellations, looking at both online and textual resources. The work produced is based around the book she has examined, ‘The Stars, A New Way To See Them’ by H.A.Rey, where she has selected suggestive words and found their definitions. With this Anderson has created a star chart, linking and arranging words informed by the illustrations found in the book.

Knowlden has responded to the collaborative installation by exploring the pure visual side of star constellations. She has selected a number of star systems from the sculpture and illustrated them by producing individual ink based positive slides. The audience can observe the entire collection using the slide viewer, whilst one slide is projected within the second room.

First Light Festival (2019)

JMC Anderson and myself were commissioned to transform a Lowestoft beach hut into an immersive astronomical space inspired by our 2016 residency Constellations.

The hut artwork was part of a brand new 24-hour multi-arts festival over the summer solstice celebrating Lowestoft as our most easterly town where the first sunrise reaches the horizon every morning. The hut contained every constellation in the northern hemisphere spelled out by individual letters and arranged in star-patterns to resemble the cosmos.