liquid gravity
2013
Format 1: 132 x 202 cm / 52 x 79.5 in, edition of 6 + 2 AP
Format 2: 67 x 102 cm / 26.3 x 40.2 in, edition of 6 + 2 AP
Hybrid photography, archival pigment print, aludibond, diasec, custom-made aluminium frame
“liquid gravity” explores linkages between space, gravity, and the human body. A cosmonaut levitates above the ground in what seems at first sight to be an industrial environment. In fact it´s the world´s largest hydrolab at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia. Known as “neutral buoyancy”, the principle of simulating weightlessness in a huge tank of water was first developed by Buzz Aldrin for the Gemini project in the early 1960s. Since then the hydrolab has been a vital part of training for all cosmonauts and astronauts.
The artwork "liquid gravity" draws on a cosmonaut training session taken by Michael Najjar in December 2012 at Star City. The artist spent two hours under water in an original EVA spacesuit. The picture was taken at a depth of 12m and subsequently one element was digitally added - the Earth. The view of the Earth through the porthole dislocates the viewer’s perspective of space and questions the relationship between the real-world and fabricated reality.
