A New Portal to the Universe
/
If you have been following these posts for a while, you’ll know that the contemporary artist Sheena Rae Dowling has already painted one amazing space-themed art installation in a recess under my house. Dignitaries such as former NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden have crawled inside to see it, and space art legend Chris Calle even stuffed six people and a bunch of canvases in there for the biggest-smallest space art show of all time.
Now, Sheena has outdone herself with a second art installation in my home.
My house is built on the side of a steep hill, on a big shelf of honey-colored granite that is well over 100 million years old. A large area underneath the house where the rock face drops steeply was sealed off at the time the home was built – enclosed for almost two decades. It was now time for me to open it up and put it to creative use.
Once a hatchway was cut into the wall, I could crawl inside using a ladder. The space was not pretty. The beautiful rock had been splattered with cement during construction, the cinder block walls were gray and imposing, and the bottom of the crevasse was full of construction rubble. I spent many grimy days in there hauling out bucket after bucket of dirt and debris. The rock was filthy; every time I climbed it, loose gravel rained down and clouds of dust rose. At the base of the rock, surrounded on three sides, I felt like I was deep in a cave. It took me weeks to excavate the space enough for it to be a tolerable work area.
I gave the concrete areas a primer coat of black paint and then a construction crew moved in, finishing painting the walls and ceiling with a deep black. They then chipped the concrete splatters off the stone. The beautiful rock eventually appeared to be floating in a sea of blackness.
Now it was Sheena’s turn.
First, she covered wooden joist walls with baseboard, giving her four smooth black walls and a ceiling to work with. The area to paint was much larger than her prior installation, so this time she created a broad sweep of the universe angling from wall to wall. Imagining the reddish rock to be a Martian cliff edge, she positioned a tiny Earth in one spot, as well as the Martian moons of Phobos and Deimos. The constellation Cassiopeia and the distant Andromeda galaxy also made appearances. Some features were cleverly positioned so that when the sun came through a small ventilation slit, it would move across and highlight them.
I’d been very impressed with an enormous LED light installation that Sheena had exhibited at the San Diego Art Institute some years earlier, and had asked if something similar could be incorporated into this design. She created a recessed red lighting effect which boosted the eerie feel of being on a rock suspended in Martian space. Other tiny lights around the rock could be turned on and off to create a different, almost volcanic feel.
The room is the size of a large bedroom, and lying on the cool rock face is strange: you feel as if you are outdoors even though you are deep inside a building. The rock feels comfortingly cool on hot California days, and it’s very calming to climb in the room and gaze at the universe.
Of course, I have already asked Sheena to create a third installation for me. Watch this space – literally.
You can learn more about Sheena's work at www.sheenaraedowling.com .
