Steven Pippin
02 Apr - 14 May 2005
Steven Pippin
UFO
On the evening of the 8th of March 1998, from the window of his apartment in Mariannenplatz, Steven Pippin saw above St. Thomas' church a strange and scarcely explicable light phenomenon. A fire ball slowly fell from the sky, which appeared "artificial, like a projection", and after a few seconds shrunk to a point of light, before moving away perfectly horizontally and at high speed.
In the exhibition UFO Pippin is showing for the first time a photograph in which he restages this event which now lies seven years back. Though in principal not dissimilar to nineteenth century photographs in which supposedly extrasensory phenomena are depicted (mostly via simple double exposure or retouching), the Photoshop-montage in Pippin's case functions simply as a makeshift representation of the event as a kind of subsequent proof, which naturally will be understood as such.
Since the early 90s Pippin has built seven different machines with moving television monitors. The provisional end point of this development is presented in the work Geostationary Plasma Screen, a modern version of a globe in the form of a flat screen fixed to a steel construction, which can carry out three axial movements, whereby the axis turned in itself represents the force of gravity. As in earlier versions (e.g. Flat Field, 1993) The monitor shows the image of the turning earth which was filmed in a counter-rotational direction so that the movement of the monitor and the earth's rotation cancel each other out. As a result of the perfect synchronisation of these three movements the observer sees a static image. When the screen is in a horizontal position and facing upwards, the filmed image shows the North Pole, facing downwards the South Pole, and when exactly in the vertical position, the equator is in the middle of the screen. While at this stage the monitors still show a filmed image of the earth, this should later be replaced by a direct link with NASA infrared weather data, which would then introduce a useful dimension to the work. In Pippin's words: "This is something that would be a continuation of the work rather than let it be complete at this stage of fabrication rendering a redundant obsolete machine at the very point of completion."
SCRT (Spherical Cathode Ray Tube) still only exists as a sketch. The aim of this work is the development of a spherical screen on which, as with Geostationary Plasma Screen, weather data from the internet should be seen in a permanent update, but which in the first stage of development could also work with the filmed version of the globe on DVD. Instead of a single cathode as is usual in cathode ray tubes, SCRT should be equipped with two cathodes, one in the South the other in the North Pole, each cathode then projecting the image onto the opposite hemisphere. This will be the final TV work within the series of TV machines.
Omega=1, a pencil standing on its point is currently to be seen only as a photo, but which at a later date should be realised as an object balancing on a moving surface. This image is often described in astrophysical publications to depict the open state of the universe – the perfect balance between its possible implosion or the uncontrollable expansion and eventual evaporation.
Many of Pippin's works find themselves in this hybrid state between sculpture and scientific model – as does Black Hole with Time Warp, a further development of the Black Hole installed in 2003 at the science-forum in the Gendarmenmarkt. Around the black aluminium sphere representing a Black Hole and alluding to surveillance cameras in shops, moves on one side of the steel tube construction a TV-monitor which shows the image of the rotating earth around which a small planetarium orbits. On the opposite side of the horizontal axis a convex shaped vinyl record and a clock are attached. The ensemble can be read as a metaphor of the Grand Unified Theory (GUT), which combines gravitational force, electromagnetism and radioactivity. At the same time various concepts from Pippin's works of the last ten years come together.
For further information and images please contact the gallery.
opening April 1st 2005, 6 – 9 pm
duration of the exhibition April 2nd 2005 – May 14th 2005
opening hours Tuesdays through Saturdays, 11 am – 6 pm
UFO
On the evening of the 8th of March 1998, from the window of his apartment in Mariannenplatz, Steven Pippin saw above St. Thomas' church a strange and scarcely explicable light phenomenon. A fire ball slowly fell from the sky, which appeared "artificial, like a projection", and after a few seconds shrunk to a point of light, before moving away perfectly horizontally and at high speed.
In the exhibition UFO Pippin is showing for the first time a photograph in which he restages this event which now lies seven years back. Though in principal not dissimilar to nineteenth century photographs in which supposedly extrasensory phenomena are depicted (mostly via simple double exposure or retouching), the Photoshop-montage in Pippin's case functions simply as a makeshift representation of the event as a kind of subsequent proof, which naturally will be understood as such.
Since the early 90s Pippin has built seven different machines with moving television monitors. The provisional end point of this development is presented in the work Geostationary Plasma Screen, a modern version of a globe in the form of a flat screen fixed to a steel construction, which can carry out three axial movements, whereby the axis turned in itself represents the force of gravity. As in earlier versions (e.g. Flat Field, 1993) The monitor shows the image of the turning earth which was filmed in a counter-rotational direction so that the movement of the monitor and the earth's rotation cancel each other out. As a result of the perfect synchronisation of these three movements the observer sees a static image. When the screen is in a horizontal position and facing upwards, the filmed image shows the North Pole, facing downwards the South Pole, and when exactly in the vertical position, the equator is in the middle of the screen. While at this stage the monitors still show a filmed image of the earth, this should later be replaced by a direct link with NASA infrared weather data, which would then introduce a useful dimension to the work. In Pippin's words: "This is something that would be a continuation of the work rather than let it be complete at this stage of fabrication rendering a redundant obsolete machine at the very point of completion."
SCRT (Spherical Cathode Ray Tube) still only exists as a sketch. The aim of this work is the development of a spherical screen on which, as with Geostationary Plasma Screen, weather data from the internet should be seen in a permanent update, but which in the first stage of development could also work with the filmed version of the globe on DVD. Instead of a single cathode as is usual in cathode ray tubes, SCRT should be equipped with two cathodes, one in the South the other in the North Pole, each cathode then projecting the image onto the opposite hemisphere. This will be the final TV work within the series of TV machines.
Omega=1, a pencil standing on its point is currently to be seen only as a photo, but which at a later date should be realised as an object balancing on a moving surface. This image is often described in astrophysical publications to depict the open state of the universe – the perfect balance between its possible implosion or the uncontrollable expansion and eventual evaporation.
Many of Pippin's works find themselves in this hybrid state between sculpture and scientific model – as does Black Hole with Time Warp, a further development of the Black Hole installed in 2003 at the science-forum in the Gendarmenmarkt. Around the black aluminium sphere representing a Black Hole and alluding to surveillance cameras in shops, moves on one side of the steel tube construction a TV-monitor which shows the image of the rotating earth around which a small planetarium orbits. On the opposite side of the horizontal axis a convex shaped vinyl record and a clock are attached. The ensemble can be read as a metaphor of the Grand Unified Theory (GUT), which combines gravitational force, electromagnetism and radioactivity. At the same time various concepts from Pippin's works of the last ten years come together.
For further information and images please contact the gallery.
opening April 1st 2005, 6 – 9 pm
duration of the exhibition April 2nd 2005 – May 14th 2005
opening hours Tuesdays through Saturdays, 11 am – 6 pm