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Astrolabe
2014
OWEN MORREL (AMERICAN)
Stainless Steel and Painted Aluminum
Experimental Sciences Building Courtyard
Astrolabe is referent to a primitive navigational instrument.
Unlike the original astrolabe, which was an instrument
designed to orient navigators to the stars, in this instance,
it asks the viewer to reorient the mind within a constructed
landscape through the act of seeing. It is puzzle-like and
requires the viewer to be active, to walk around the piece
in an effort to discover what is happening and how it works
formally and visually, not necessarily to solve a riddle in a
linear and rational fashion. This piece asks the viewer to
accept the totality of the experience as irrational, unfamiliar,
challenging, and irreducible.
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