Beyond Yesterday Oil on linen 80 x 55 cm 2014
THROUGH THE COSMOS
In my last post Lightning I promised some more details about my experience attending the series of events Through The Cosmos, a fabulous few days of concerts and presentations 6-9 November here in Brisbane at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre [QPAC]. Journey Through The Cosmos was a collaboration of science and art/music hosted by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra [QSO]. The Queensland Government's Super Stars Fund brought famous physicist Prof Brian Cox to the collaboration, along with violinist Jack Leibeck, Prof Brian Foster and composer Dario Marianelli.
After writing my last post I attended two more events - Composing For Hollywood, a truly fascinating discussion with composer Dario Marianelli, and a performance/lecture with Brian Cox called The Physics of Time. The inspiring lecture was followed by a performance Quartet for the End of Time written by Messiaen when he was a prisoner in a World War II concentration camp. Messiaen composed the work for himself and three other prisoners who all played musical instruments. The performance I saw/heard included violinist Jack Liebeck, pianist Zubin Kanga, cellist Li Wei Qin and clarinettist Paul Dean.
COMPOSING FOR HOLLYWOOD
The discussion with Dario Marianelli and author, composer, musicologist Stephen Johnson really highlighted the complexities of movie production. Whilst Marianelli spoke mainly about his life, composing, performing, recording music for films, it was evident that the interconnectedness of every aspect of production is highly complex with each bit requiring excellence. It was fascinating to hear a man talk about his career with such passion. Johnson was a great person to have as the fellow conversationalist. Marianelli was commissioned by the QSO to compose a piece for Journey Through The Cosmos. His Voyager violin concerto, inspired by spacecraft Voyafer 1 and II, was performed by the QSO, with violinist Jack Leibeck, at the Journey Through The Cosmos concerts.
THE PHYSICS OF TIME
The Physics Of Time lecture was delivered by Brian Cox with his trademark conversational style. He explained Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, quantum physics, spoke a bit about time travel, cosmic time, the beginning and end of the Universe, the large Hadron Collider at Cern. He also mentioned a fractal tree of universes [see my previous post Universes and Trees] in the context that our Universe may be just one in a Multiverse characterised by an infinite number of simultaneously occurring Big Bangs. He ended the lecture with a quote:
For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love......Carl Sagan.
AND!!! Below is a photo of me with Brian Cox, taken after the Journey Through The Cosmos concert!
Photo Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox and Prof Brian Cox courtesy Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Now to my new painting Beyond Yesterday [above]
Regular readers will know that I have been interested in the idea of a Multiverse for some time. Please see my earlier 2010 painting simply called Multiverse [below]. So, what was I thinking when I painted Beyond Yesterday, which I had started before going to Journey Through The Cosmos?
I wanted to create a cosmic-like landscape ie: an ambiguous one...where the viewer has some trouble orienting him/herself. The background colour [see detail photo below] is textured, as if there is another 'scape' behind the one on the surface, where there are 'landscape'-like contours and perhaps a hazy horizon. Yet the background colour and texture is a constant, suggesting a much larger essence, perhaps the 'reality' that an horizon-less existence is possible? If our Universe exists in a Multiverse, that is characterised by ongoing simultaneous Big Bangs, then our Universal horizon is merely the end point of our Universe, but not of cosmological existence. The red ball, painted like a 'scape' is perhaps another Universe? It shares the same background colour and texture with the other 'landscape', yet it seems to both recede into the distance at the same time as appearing to be propelled forward out of the painting.
Beyond Yesterday, as regular readers will identify, is another of my 'landscapes' that attempt to untether notions of landscape from Earth-bound horizons.
DETAIL Beyond Yesterday Oil on linen 80 x 55 cm 2014
WHY THE TITLE BEYOND YESTERDAY?
Well, to me at least, it does not immediately suggest a single trajectory of time and existence. 'Beyond yesterday' could mean back into the past, but equally moving into the future, it could be simply an ever present NOW or it could mean some other dimension.
Light that we see, or detect, from space comes from a long ago 'yesterday', yet we 'see' it in the present and can deduce things that will or might happen in the future. 'Yesterday' is in some kind of perpetual 'beyond-ness'.
AND, then think about all those other potential Universes being created by simultaneous Big Bangs. If we think of time in a Multiverse something seemingly nonsensical as Beyond Yesterday helps us lose grip on the 'safety net', or perhaps 'shackle' of TIME [as we think we perceive it].
Multiverse Oil on linen 80 x 100 cm 2010
OOO [Object Oriented Ontology] SYMPOSIUM
My proposal for a paper/presentation was accepted and I am one of the speakers at:
Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, Queensland, Australia.
Thursday 20 November 8.30am - 4.30 am
My topic is:
Cosmic Perspectives
Cheers,
Kathryn
1 comment:
Beyond Yesterday is absolutely gorgeous.
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