Harmony of the Spheres
- Jul 2
- 2 min read
Listening to the radio the other day, they played Strauss'"Harmony of the Spheres". The presenter explained how each star (sphere) in the night sky is represented by a note and they all have perfect harmony.
It got me thinking about art as a representation or an interpretation. Words not coming easily, to put it another way: to use something natural as a springboard, to go beyond simply representing it, to go beyond merely translating it - moving it from one medium to another- as you want to understand something in a different way, you want to link it in a different way. Strauss thinking of the stars as musical notes and that as a whole they are in complete harmony, which is then de-structured and reconfigured to make a piece of music.
So spring boarding off Strauss' idea of stars linked to music and due largely due to the bright sunlight that has been around for the last two weeks, I have spent the week photographing the impact of light, primarily our own little star's rays, on surfaces. The play of the light itself, the surface its reflecting off. A direct play on translation perhaps but then pushing it to see where it goes, altering predominantly the shutter speed to either increase or decrease the light flow. The painting above is the start of an idea of using the translucent nature of the wax to obscure the underlying paint, as a progression from the photographs.
By the nature of the exercise, some the photographs are very dark... something I appreciate photographer's can't stand, but I personally love.. though with age I can appreciate a nice bright image is easier to see. Going from the bleaching effect of direct sunlight through the window, the highlights on the crop field, the light from a bulb; to the dappled indirect light through windows or trees. The indirect light has layers with reflections caused by the light itself. The light itself is partly altered by the medium its going through and then duplication of the reflective surfaces picking up things out of shot are that are being lit by the light. It feels like a treasure trove to explore.
