spiral drawing sunrise by polak esther from netherlands

How to visualize the sunrise by means of its increasing solar power in public space

Thought:
People who miss the sunrise always (night owls) can now find it on their doorstep.

Short Description:
Situated in the built environment and fed by sunlight, Spiral Sunrise graphs the rising sun, using sand as its ink. A solar-powered robot leashed to a pole (or tree) carries an hourglass. As the machine moves it releases sand, making a spiral pattern over time. These patterns are a kind of solar drawing, directly representing the strength of energy in time.

The performance does start half an hour before sunrise, and continues till the winding of the rope has come to an end. Each performance will again be registered in the form of three mono prints and a video. Each registration also represents the “morning atmosphere’ per city and time of the year. Bypassers are confronted with solar energy as being omnipresent: every day again the sun rises and creates a unique flow of free energy.

The project offers the opportunity to individual collectors, galleries and museums to invite the project to execute a performance on their doorstep or on any relevant location. Locations and sunrise days are picked in close consultation with the artist. The performance is a work of art in public space. The resulting print and video form a lasting piece that will be part of the collection of the commissioner.

The piece consists of 3 100 x 70 mono-prints and a 3-7 min. video and is presented as the combination of both. The mono prints are being made by using graffiti spray paint over 3 pieces of paper that were positioned on the ground prior to the performance.

The resulting prints form a visual strong presence in the (exhibition) space and are being hung in the same constellation as they were positioned on the ground during the performance.

Conceptual Background:
Spiral Sunrise is intended as a visualization of our environment as one that is ruled by balances of energy. The work seeks an association with the hour glass – an age-old symbol of “vanitas”, and the progress of time.

Spiral Sunrise is also positioned within the history of work popularly known as ‘Land Art’, for example Robert Smithons Spiral Jetty, or the Dutch artist Gerrit van Bakel who designed small robots that run on temperature difference between day and night.

Spiral Sunrise is Polak’s second sand-robot. Before she has developed a robot that draws sand patters based on GPS data. The first robot was designed to present GPS data in a tangible manner, in public space.

www.nomadicmilk.net

During this process, the potential of sand drawing as temporary graffiti has grown in her mind, and was developed further in Spiral Sunrise during Interactivos?08 madrid