Astrolabe - Solid State

I’ve had the basic shape and layout for this piece staring at me in the studio, off to the side, for more than 2 years. One thing about the lockdown period is that I’m now finding time to get around to various half-formed ideas that litter the edges of my studio. And by letting this one stew for a while, it allowed me to come up with a method to execute the design in a way that is much improved over my first concept.

This piece is approaching completion, but is not quite there. The long black arc will go to dark gray and encase an orbiting orb. This piece relates to past geometric constructions and also a series of painting on glass that I did several years ago. The connection with historic astrolabe devices is left to the imagination, but they continue to hold fascination for me. The word roughly translates as ‘Star Taker’ in ancient Greek.

This has been done with cementitious textures, stains, and graphite. Size is 39.5” x 47” x ¾” thick, plus another ¾” for the cleats at the back. .