Look to the Heavens

Look to the Heavens

Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, Oregon, 2008
Jupiter Rising, January 7, 1610, Padua, Italy

2008, hand-stitched, hand-dyed cotton, 54 x 100 in.

Galileo's journal reads: "On the seventh day of January in this present year 1610, at the first hour of night, when I was viewing the heavenly bodies with a telescope, Jupiter presented itself to me..." Aiming his telescope at the planet, he discovered three pinpoints of light. Tracking them on subsequent evenings as they followed Jupiter and not the trajectory of other stars, Galileo's discovery of Jupiter's moons helped confirm Copernicus's theory of heliocentrism, proving not all objects revolve around the earth. Considered the father of modern science, Galileo was condemned by the Catholic Church for his findings and spent the final years of his life in confinement.
Jupiter Rising, January 7, 1610, Padua, Italy

detail
A Star in the East, February 25, 6 B.C., Bethlehem

2008, hand-stitched, hand-dyed cotton, 54 x 100 in.

There are numerous astronomical theories to explain the Star of Bethlehem. One popular belief is the close alignment of Jupiter and Saturn in May, October and December of the year 7 B.C. (confirmed by Johannes Kepler in 1614 and recreated today through star calculation software) followed in February by the conjunction of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn in the constellation Pisces. This rare occurrence would have been significant to the Magi, astrologers looking to the heavens and interpreting what the stars revealed: a revelation of the birth of Jesus Christ and guidance on their journey of several months to Bethlehem.
The Dawning of the Age of Aquarius, March 20, 2160

2008, hand-stitched, hand-dyed cotton, 54 x 100 in.

Popularized by the musical Hair, "the dawning of the Age of Aquarius" is thought to usher in a collective consciousness with a resulting unity of spirit and action. There is little unity, however, on how to calculate the arrival of this next astrological age. The least complex theory holds that the present Age of Pisces began in the time of the birth of Christ, and divides the precession of the equinoxes equally among the twelve zodiac signs. By this calculation, each age is approximately 2,000 years in duration. Using a time zone where the vernal equinox–an astronomical event thought to usher in an astrological age–coincides with the rising of the sun, Calcutta, India welcomes in the Age of Acquarius in the year 2160.
The Day Without Yesterday, June 18, 1925, Mount Wilson Observatory, California

2008, hand-stitched, hand-dyed cotton, 54 x 100 in.

While science and religion have often seemed at odds regarding the structure and origins of our universe, it was a Catholic priest and mathematician, Georges Lemaître, who expounded Einstein's general theory of relativity with the idea that the universe had a singular, precise beginning. The common belief of the day was that our universe was flat and static; Lemaître's idea of an initial explosion was thought to be biased by his religious views and mocked as a "big bang.” But his theory was validated by Edwin Hubble's calculations in the 1920s that the galaxies he was cataloging at Mount Wilson Observatory were rapidly moving away from us in all directions, data that Georges Lemaître followed closely when he visited Mount Wilson Observatory in the summer of 1925. Einstein, while originally not believing his own findings and adding a cosmological constant to maintain a static universe, quickly embraced Hubble's discovery and confirmed what Lemaître had originally theorized as "the day without yesterday.”

Look to the Heavens considers historical moments when science, religion, and astrology intersect, depicting astronomical events where what is viewed in the heavens reflects on our culture below. From Galileo’s first spying of Jupiter’s moons confirming the earth was not at the center of the universe—a finding for which he was condemned as a heretic—to theories on the Star of Bethlehem as an astronomical object, these moments help locate us physically and metaphorically in the broader universe.

Using a computer program to calculate these historic vistas, I then sew the star patterns into painted, hand-dyed renderings of the night sky. Through the hand-sewing of these passages of time, I mirror my own contemplative act with the age-old existential act of stargazing.

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