Engraving in Time: From Simulations to Reality
Artem Koval a Maciej Zapiór
September 17 - November 22, 2024
Vernissage on September 30, 5 p.m.
Engraving in Time by Artem Koval and Maciej Zapiór explores the intersection of art and astronomy, asking: Can we creatively use time as a substance? Just as artists shape materials like wood and marble, they can "engrave" time through solarigraphy, capturing the Sun's position over six months. Their innovative device, equipped with a shutter and electronic components, allows for precise control of exposure and gives the possibility to engrave any text composed from solar trails.
Solarigraphy is a concept and a photographic practice based on the observation of the sun path in the sky (different in each place on the Earth) and its effect on the landscape, captured by a specific procedure. Invented around 2000, solarigraphy (also known as solargraphy) uses photographic paper without chemical processing, a pinhole camera and a scanner to create images that catch the daily journey of the sun along the sky with very long exposure times, from several hours to several years. The longest known solarigraph was captured over the course of eight years. Solarigraphy is an extreme case of long-exposure photography, and the non-conventional use of photosensitive materials is what makes it different to other methods of sun paths capture such as the Yamazaki´s "heliographys".
About authors
Mgr. Maciej Zapiór, PhD. and Mgr. Artem Koval, CSc. are employees of the Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Ondřejov, working in the Institute's Solar Physics Department. As amateur artists, they discovered solarigraphy at different stages of their lives.
Recently, they invented an extension of solarigraphy called "engraving in time." For this technique, they designed and built a pinhole camera that contains both photographic paper and electronic equipment. Daily exposures are made automatically using a shutter controlled by pre-set instructions. The sequence of the shutter's openings and closings, programmed six months in advance, enables them to sculpt any shape from the solar tracks in the sky.
They are currently working on the Circumnavigation in Time project, which involves capturing 24 exposures across different time zones around the world.
