Rachel Rose uses art work to explore mortality and the effect of mortality on the individual and the wider world. The project above was inspired by an interview and some films involving astronauts and their experience with space and mortality. 2 of the films were Interstellar and Gravity. After watching the films Rose explained that she felt disassociated and hyperaware of the light and sound frequencies.
She went on to interview David Wolf about his experience with light in space and how her perceived the world upon returning.
She films in a neutral buoyancy lab (where astronauts learn to space walk) and filmed macro domestic materials to create an abstract narrative about a journey into space and back, but symbolically about a journey to the void, nothingness, metaphorical death, and returning. How do we experience life and ‘everything’ once we have experienced nothingness?
Using domestic materials allowed her to explore the sublime, yet creating an everyday access to the sublime. Rose likes to focus on ‘what the work is asking’ and how she can respond to that, whilst making sure that her work’s practise is unstable and new. Location is a significant component in making this artwork, with the installation process being conditioned to the space and light (artificial and natural) it exists in. This makes the work unique and temperamental. More recently she has worked towards using only in-natural light and complete darkness, in an attempt to make the blacks appear transparent to really lock you in the room.
Rose really explore he narrative on every level; both thematically, practically, emotionally, spatially, and aesthetically. She hopes that her work doesn’t appear prop-like. This is something I am interested in, as I am interested in creating an immersive environment, preferably involving digital space, for my work.
Bea Kilduff 