GISELA COLÓN

NOOR RIYADH: WE DREAM OF NEW HORIZONS
ONE THOUSAND GALAXIES OF LIGHT (STARFIELD), 2022
November 2 - 19, 2022
WADI HANIFA LAKE, RIYADH, KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA
 

Drawing on cosmology, physics, and biology, One Thousand Galaxies of Light (Starfield) (2022), is a site-specific environmental work at Wadi Hanifa Lake in Saudi Arabia, inspired by the night sky, specifically the Arecibo Message, an astronomical event that originated from the Arecibo Observatory located in Colón's ancestral town of Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Until recently the Arecibo Observatory was the largest radio telescope in the world, acting as the eye to the universe, where in 1974 scientists from NASA beamed into space a powerful interstellar coded radio message carrying basic information about humanity and Earth traveling in the direction of globular cluster Messier 13, 25,000 light years away from Earth. The transmission was launched in hopes that other sentient beings might intercept the thousands of bits of encoded information about planet Earth that it comprised.

Colón’s One Thousand Galaxies of Light (Starfield), embodies the energy emanating from celestial happenings, reminiscent of a field of galactic light. Consisting of an organic site-specific configuration of 100 silver stainless steel columned light structures standing 3 meters tall, the site-specific installation spanned 2 miles of terrain alongside the Wadi Hanifa Lake, Riyad’s only waterway.  An aerial view of the installation resembles a floating constellation, and its dots and dashes evoke the binary code transmitted from Arecibo into the universe beyond. Informed by universal cosmologies, through a dialectic of form and concept, the sculptural installation proposes to transmit a sentiment of renewal and transformation reflective of Saudi Arabia’s new cultural vision centering artistic creative capital, creating an imaginary forest of mystical horizons, leading to a vibrant world of the future. It presents cosmic light as a marker of time and a reflection on the human condition.