Solar Relay
Solar Relay is an installation that both portrays and engages the energy and sound of the Sun. The piece displays and is powered by sunlight. ‘The body of water beneath both reflects and liquifies the image. This is synchronised to the sound of the sun which has been extrapolated from scientific recordings creating a fully immersive experience. The reflection of this heavenly body in water is a metaphor for our fragile chemically altered biosphere beneath the Suns ceaseless activity.After collaborating with solar scientists for over 15 years, Petroc Sesti releases his most recent Solar installation where photovoltaic panels and space telescopes are both employed to capture light and power an artwork free of the terrestrial power grid. Only when sufficient energy levels are achieved the Solar Relay edit is activated, projecting footage in intermittent sequences.
The work is fuelled by Sesti’s interest and exploration of the convergence between art and science, and where they overlap in the study and representation of abstract states of matter. This audio visual manipulation of scientific data was produced by Sesti to celebrate the 4K resolution data obtained by the ground breaking work of scientists at the Solar Dynamics Observatory.
Solar | Relay is a technological shift, allowing the artist to navigate into exclusive and unprecedented 4K film quality, where solar micro filaments travel on a digital canvas showcasing the violent beauty of Coronal Mass Ejections. The added resolution acts as an ever layered platform to study, reconstruct and highlight the seed filaments and explosions that make up the anatomy of our star and give rise to so much on our planet. Through the monthly relays, the screens are refreshed with Petroc Sesti’s translation of this footage, drawing the viewers in towards hypnotic visual manifestations of the Sun’s force.
The singularity of such events is highlighted, critical energy states that host both order and chaos, sublime expressions of a violence of beauty.
Allowing the viewer to study the arresting disturbing nature these high energy waves of particles that manage to escape the suns gravitational pull and head outwards into space. These are the same waves that create the Aurora Borealis our northern lights and are simultaneously responsible for damaging our satellite fleets and electrical grids.
“Scientific break throughs and technology have brought us the means to study quantify and convert the medium of raw energy , I feel its our responsibility as artists to access this energy data by collaborating with scientists and use it as if it were a sculptural medium from which to create artworks for the public. It is for this reason that I seek to celebrate the singularity of such vast phenomena as sublime expressions of truly violent beauty”
Petroc Sesti’s ongoing research into creating contained environments for the chaotic expression of raw energy brings us the Solar | Relay. The Sun initially featured in his work in a previous collaboration with NASA in 2001 where he celebrated the 1st detailed solar footage from their ‘SOHO’ space telescope for the creation of Suspended Animation. The piece also featured the previously unheard sound of the Sun, today, the original score has been adapted to new material for Solar | Relay.
2020
SOLAR POWERED
SOLAR | RELAY
MANIFESTA 13 MARSEILLE
INFINITE VILLAGE
From August 28th to October 4th, 2020 at Espace Jouenne & Maison Montgrand in Marseille
From October 16th to November 29th, 2020 at 109 in Nice
Space weather in a time of global warming, Petroc Sesti’s 4th iteration of Solar Relay focuses on solar storms and fragile atmosphere at the Infinite village.
The Infinite Village presented as part of the Les Parallèles du Sud program of the 13th edition of the Manifesta Biennale was designed by Cora Von Zezschwitz & Tilman (Canada / France / Germany) artists and curators, under the artistic direction of Francisca Viudes, curator, artistic director of Espace Lympia and founder of The (He)art for (He)art Program in Nice.
Taking place at Espace Jouenne in Marseille and then at the 109, a pole of contemporary cultures in Nice, the Infinite Village is a social, collective and architectural sculpture that invites you to experience a "common". This artistic, participative and educational platform will occupy the cities of Marseille and Nice in various forms (installations, performances, workshops, conferences and projection) offering plural activities to share with local residents, international guests, associations and the public. This European and International entity is drawing a new togetherness and humanist future.
“In every age the sun has been the object of humanity’s most intense speculation and wonder. For our ancestors the sun was a life-giving parent, ever present in its resplendent power as their cultures emerged and took shape.
Petroc Sesti’s spectacular, immersive, art installation Solar Relay, a work that portrays and harnesses the energy of the Sun. The product of over 15 years of collaboration by Sesti with leading solar scientists, Solar Relay comprises the artist’s unique, audio-visual interpretation of a regularly updated stream of 4k visual data of the sun’s surface provided by scientists at the Solar Dynamics Observatory and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. Presented in extraordinary detail, the work communicates the strange, awesome and almost abstract power of the sun. Conceptually squaring the circle, the installation is entirely powered by solar power. “
- Nick Hackworth Modern Forms
2017 - Solar Powered Solar Relay, Aeroplastics Gallery, Brussels
Sculpture In the City 2016
Now in its sixth year, the critically acclaimed Sculpture in the City returns to the Square Mile with contemporary works from internationally renowned artists
Petroc Sesti Studio's inaugural digital installation was unveiled at this year's edition of Sculpture in the City in the City Of London, alongside Sarah Lucas, William Kentridge and Gavin Turk amongst others.
