Michael John Whelan
Video Installation
Film
Photography
Objects
Paper & Sound
Info
News
Hydrogen Helium
Chamber
Wild Flowers
Dawning
Understanding Magnetism
Metatron's Cube
Dodecahedron
Sternenkind
Hydrogen Helium
2018
eight channel sound installation
2:51 min continuous loop
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A solo voice lists in alphabetical order twenty-eight obsolete star constellations that were named after animals. Named between the 16th and 19th centuries, some were officially recognised for decades, others for centuries. In 1922 the International Astronomical Union held a general assembly in Rome where they decided the 88 modern constellations to be adopted by the global astronomy community, all others were removed. The speakers are arranged in a circle facing inwards. Each channel begins at a different time than the speaker to its left, allowing the names of the constellations to merge, shift and grow together, creating both a cacophony of loss and the birth of a new unrecognisable lexicon. Voice: Cillian Murphy / Sound engineering: Brian Crosby