Observatoires Christoph Keller
September 25—October 20, 2007

Observatoires Christoph Keller

Message to the Extraterrestrials, 2007 (floor, left) Dobsonian Telescope with pedestal, slide projection with telescope mounting, slide carrousel with timer A slide projector, attached to a Dobsonian telescope, projects images on the telescope's concave mirror, which in turn reflects them on two further mirrors installed on the ceiling and on the floor, until the light beam leaves the space through a window. The 80 slides show images which have been part on the legendary "Golden Record" produced for the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 missions. Ohne Titel (Inverse Observatories), 2007 (wall, left) 10 piezo prints with passepartout Ohne Titel (Inverse Observatories), 2007 (wall, center) B/W photography Ohne Titel (Inverse Observatories), 2007 (wall, right) B/W photography, 3 parts Inverse Observatories is a series of photographs of astronomical observatories found by the artist on the internet and brought together to a kind of archive. Formally, use is made of solarised negatives. This technique reverses light and shade values and gives the prints a surrealistic look. The resultant reality shift conveys the impression of an extraterrestrial vision of our scientific "monuments". Photo © Carsten Eisfeld

Press Release

Christoph Keller’s third solo show at Esther Schipper centres on a telescope switched from receive to broadcast—its concave mirror reflects the light beam from a slide projector that is sent zigzagging via further mirrors through the darkened gallery space and finally, through an open window, outside. The pictures projected in this way have already been in space for thirty years. In coded form, they became part of the Voyager 1 & 2 space probe missions...
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