alexandra carr mrss

Ether

During my Leverhulme funded residency at Durham University, I was invited to produce an installation in the Damon Wells Chapel at Pembroke College, Oxford, for their Access Week titled The World Machine, in partnership with The Ordered Universe Project.

Ether was produced with intentionally limited time and materials as an exercise in creativity within constraints. The initial day or two was set aside for exploration of material and experimentation with the space.  After establishing the medium and process, Ether was produced through a repetitive and contemplative installation of 12.5km of nylon microfilament that was woven, spun and hung within the architecture of the Damon Wells chapel. A video projected through the piece brings Ether to life. As the video moves through the colour spectrum Ether flickers and pulses with various hues, almost as an apparition floating in space.  As you move around the space the spherical light seems to follow you, even as you approach the projection to see the many layers that make up the ethereal form. Ether grew organically from play and exploration and serves as an hypnotic form for contemplation, as soothing as it is beguiling.

Ether serves as a meditative musing on the spiritual, philosophical and profound process of coming close to an understanding of the sense of our place in the cosmos.