Picasso and Einstein in the sky
http://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/picasso-and-einstein-in-the-sky-1.1614033#.UqL5ieVRpjs
“IT IS only through science and art that civilisation is of
value,” wrote Henri Poincaré, the great 20th century French polymath.
Liza Grobler’s performance piece, Diary of a Nanosatellite,
forms part of Art Week.
Now in its second year, Art Week sees galleries, museums,
arts organisations and artists collaborate to create a strong public focus on
the art scene in Cape Town.
Science and the arts have always been inextricably linked.
Stereotypically they may be regarded as having an uneasy
relationship, where neither party really trusts or even respects the other. But
both rely on creativity and sometimes each other. There are even times they
find themselves working on similar problems from different points.
Without science, particularly mathematics, there would have
been no European Renaissance and the power to create a believable 3D illusion
on a flat surface. This approach relied on a single vanishing point to suggest
depth so that the viewer felt they could actually enter the artwork. Then along
comes Picasso and smashes the thousand-year-old cyclops vision. His painting
took into consideration that we have two eyes – that each see slightly
differently – and recognises that we inhabit both space and time.
Picasso is considered one of the most important artists of
the 20th century and Einstein the most important scientist. It has been
suggested that they were both working on the same problem – a profound way to
represent space and time. They never met, but according to Arthur I Miller,
Professor of History and Philosophy of Science and author of the Pulitzer
nominated book Einstein, Picasso: Space, Time and the Beauty that Causes Havoc,
it was Henri Poincaré and his best-selling book Science and Hypothesis that linked
Einstein and Picasso.
Picasso was particularly impressed by Poincaré’s advice on
how to view the fourth dimension, which artists considered another spatial
dimension. But Picasso ultimately rejected Poincaré’s suggestion of visually
showing the four dimensions separately. Instead he showed them all at once. And
the result was Cubism.
Robert van Zyl, director of the Cape Peninsula University of
Technology space programme, with his staff, developed South Africa’s first nanosatellite, a tiny 10cm
cube, ZACUBE-1.It was launched in Yasny, a small town in the USSR on
November 21, and will orbit the earth from pole to pole to measure the weather
in space.
Van Zyl had no previous experience of conceptual art and had
never conceived that art could be used as a form of communication. At a Zero
Gravity conference in Beijing he experienced how
the US
used the work of artist Frank Pietronigro in their presentation. And so Van Zyl
was opened to approaching artist Liza Grobler (who he met at a dinner party) to
find a creative way to commemorate the launch of the satellite as so few people
would have been able to witness it. He is hoping to draw the South African
public’s attention to it, particularly that of South African youth, with whom
CPUT has established outreach programmes.
Van Zyl suggested a beaded satellite but Grobler, whose work
involves craft techniques of stitching, had other ideas. Paul Klee’s idea of “a
line is a dot that went for a walk” came to mind. This led to the notion of the
trajectory of an orbiting satellite creating an invisible line around the earth
and her idea for Diary of a Nanosatellite was conceived.
And so at midday on Saturday, a procession of 40 people made
up of the Qubeka (Xhosa for continuation) beaders and engineers in dust suits –
symbolic of space suits – carrying 20 large red weather balloons will walk into
an open field in Kayelitsha where cows graze and children play soccer.
The procession will be accompanied by the sound of a digital
metronome – which makes the same pinging sound as a satellite. The group will
gather around a drain that looks like a plinth onto which a 3D replica of
ZACUBE-1 will be ceremonially placed. The weather balloons will be anchored in
the field to mark the position of the satellite. Attached to each balloon is a
motherboard and a piece of string. Although they will not be allowed to float
free, the balloons will ascend to a certain height and then, prompted by the
motherboard, each balloon will release a little blue parachute.
Grobler suggests that “the space thus becomes a temporary
installation visible from afar”.
“Although all physical traces of the event will be removed
on that same afternoon,” explains Grobler, “the trajectory of the nanosatellite
will live on in the imagination.”
Photographs of the
performance will be exhibited later at Brundyn Gallery.
l Diary of a Nanosatellite will be held at Buyel’Embo,
Makhaya 8 Alfred Nzo Street, Mandela
Park, Khayelitsha.
Transport will be available from the Grand Parade hourly between 11am and 4pm
(R40 return). Call 021 462 4276.