Another World (2021-2023)
Foam board, rotating display stand, black Plasticine, prism, glass, mirrors, mirrored card, head torch, glue gun glue, double sided tape, polyester board, black polyester velvet and a Data DVD from a friend marked with my name on one side. The other side of the DVD contains data of photos taken from a plane during the day and night, photos where clouds are reflected perfectly in a glass like lake, sunsets and an unusual fungus and one where my friend and his wife are looking at the fungus.
Another World is the result of experimentation with light using all of the above objects.
A data DVD spins slowly at an angle on rotating display stand. On a glass platform above it a head torch is positioned so that the data DVD makes rainbow colours as the white light shining on it is diffracted. It is reflected from ridges underneath the surface which holds the data. As the light overlaps and creates interference, the rainbow colours are created. The swirling rainbow patterns made as the DVD turns are then reflected by the prism above to create a kaleidoscopic effect.
Following on from Sagittarius A* I wanted to create an artwork that changes the way in which we look at the world. I can accept there are things that I can’t see but I know they exist and I have been trying to find ways of explaining this in order to create a metaphor for reality.
I started off thinking about how white light can be split into its component parts using a prism. The colours are there in the white light even if you can’t see them, just like other wavelengths and frequencies on the electromagnetic spectrum exist but are invisible to the naked eye. In Another World the white light is separated into the colours it contains but the data on the DVD creating the refraction is not visible.
My friend seems to have been flying across a lake at night. The light from a town is thrown back up into the clouds. There are photos of reflections in several lakes during the daytime and there is a picture of my friend and his wife looking at a giant fungus. Invisible to the naked eye the information is still there, the beauty of the clouds, the pristine reflection in the lake. You’ll just have to believe that the images are there. Maybe you can imagine them in your minds eye and maybe that is enough.
JESS SUTTON ART 