tender orbits (Hatteras)
2023
Copeland Gallery, London
Hand-chiseled tactile sculpture made of wood off-cuts, used space blanket, embroidery, upholstered used memory foam, MDF.
tender orbits is an ongoing series of installations and performances that probe on our lacking relationality to space debris. Despite having enabled communication, monetary transactions, warfare, weather tracking and space exploration, orbital debris remains detached from our visual, material and sensuous understandings. In the installations visitors are invited to touch and hold tactile 'space junk' sculptures, which are accompanied by textual narratives of de-orbited and fallen space debris, and materials developed for space exploration. The work is part of an ongoing PhD research at the Royal College of Art.
Wall text:
October 8th, 2017 SpaceX debris washes ashore in Hatteras Village, N.C, USA
‘Local authorities and others are generally describing the object as a slab of aeronautical debris...It is curved and shows signs of tearing along one edge...It does not appear to have been in the water for too long as there are not a lot of barnacles.’ (newsobserver.com)
Please take a seat and hold the object.
