A Place That Exists Only in Moonlight: Katie Paterson & J. M. W. Turner , Margate, UK,to 6 May 2019
WHAT colour is the universe? Right now, according to Scottish artist Katie Paterson, it is beige; astronomers from Johns Hopkins University call it 鈥渃osmic latte鈥�.
Paterson鈥檚 new work enlists astrophysical research to present the ever-changing spectrum of cosmic events over billions of years in the form of a rapidly rotating colour wheel.
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This rainbow spinner, entitled The Cosmic Spectrum, plots the ageing of the universe on a logarithmic curve, savouring the vivid blues of its brief youth, before tipping into the orange-brown hues of our own 鈥淪telliferous Era鈥�, and the terminal reds that mark the mass death of galaxies.
Like many of Paterson鈥檚 projects, The Cosmic Spectrum yokes wit to wonder. She has bounced Beethoven鈥檚 Moonlight Sonata off the moon in the form of Morse code and then played the uncannily distorted result on an automated piano. She has installed a mobile phone and amplifier in a melting glacier in Iceland to let us hear the sound of climate change. She has loaded 10,000 images of solar eclipses onto a spinning disco mirrorball. She has programmed a turntable to play a vinyl record of Vivaldi鈥檚 Four Seasons at the exact speed of Earth鈥檚 rotation.
Another new venture transforms the smells of space 鈥� from the forest whiffs of our planet through the 鈥渙ld penny鈥� of Mars to 鈥渞aspberries and rum鈥� in outer space 鈥� into a layered candle of otherworldly fragrances. However outlandish, all her creations begin with words and 鈥渢he magic of a blank page鈥�. Then she finds ways to make these ideas solid. Her work makes visible, and thinkable, mind-stretching concepts of deep time and distant space.
All these works are on display in A Place That Exists Only in Moonlight, the most comprehensive show to date of Paterson鈥檚 work. A score of watercolours, and one oil painting, by J. M. W. Turner hang beside her installations. The contrast is apt: two centuries ago, art鈥檚 great maestro of light, water and weather also kept abreast of scientific progress and engaged with researchers.
Born in Glasgow in 1981, Paterson began to work with scientists while she was an art student in London. Later residencies in universities and collaborations with NASA and the European Space Agency 鈥� which carried a recast meteorite , to the International Space Station, for her 鈥� have ensured that her projects do more than hazily evoke cosmology or geology for a nebulous thrill.
鈥淎 turntable plays a vinyl record of Vivaldi鈥檚 Four Seasons at the exact speed of Earth鈥檚 rotation鈥�
As a child, Paterson excelled at mathematics. Now, even her most 鈥渟ublime鈥� raids on ideas of infinity and eternity make use of rich data sets gathered from specialists. 鈥淚鈥檝e always been an absolute stickler for getting things right,鈥� she said during a preview in the Margate gallery. 鈥淚f I can鈥檛 do it accurately, there鈥檚 no point.鈥�
Both cerebral and visceral, Paterson鈥檚 inventions often bring to mind the 鈥渃onceits鈥� devised by metaphysical poets in the 17th century 鈥� another age that sought to align art and science.
As concepts, they perplex and inspire. As fixtures in a show, they offer spectacle as well as stimulation: the eclipse images whirling around a room through her revolving mirrorball; the fractured music of Earth-Moon-Earth after its long lunar voyage; her suspended sculpture of linked light bulbs that maps the constellation of Ara.
Now Paterson鈥檚 ideas are drawing her into domains no gallery can contain. Begun in 2014, her Future Library scheme commissions a story each year from an author (participants so far include Margaret Atwood, David Mitchell and Elif Shafak) and lodges it, unread, at Oslo City Library.
North of the Norwegian capital, Paterson has planted a forest. In 2114, its trees will furnish the paper for the first printing of this buried literature. As a gamble on the future, and an ecological appeal to posterity, Future Library frames human narratives within an awe-inspiring larger span: Paterson鈥檚 signature style. As she said in Margate, 鈥淚t brings together everything I enjoy.鈥�
But, as she makes us realise, some cycles of time and change dwarf others. In a mere century, as our heirs read Future Library, the universe will still be sipping cosmic latte.
