I read about her work in a book, the turntable record that spins at the speed of the earth and takesKatie Paterson – Future Library 4 years to end, as well as her ice record.
Katie Paterson
Here is her bio.
Katie Paterson (born 1981, Scotland) is widely regarded as one of the leading artists of her generation. Collaborating with scientists and researchers across the world, Paterson’s projects consider our place on Earth in the context of geological time and change. Her artworks make use of sophisticated technologies and specialist expertise to stage intimate, poetic and philosophical engagements between people and their natural environment. Combining a Romantic sensibility with a research-based approach, conceptual rigour and coolly minimalist presentation, her work collapses the distance between the viewer and the most distant edges of time and the cosmos.
Katie Paterson has broadcast the sounds of a melting glacier live, mapped all the dead stars, compiled a slide archive of darkness from the depths of the Universe, created a light bulb to simulate the experience of moonlight, and sent a recast meteorite back into space. Eliciting feelings of humility, wonder and melancholy akin to the experience of the Romantic sublime, Paterson’s work is at once understated in gesture and yet monumental in scope.
Katie Paterson has exhibited internationally, from London to New York, Berlin to Seoul, and her works have been included in major exhibitions including Turner Contemporary, Hayward Gallery, Tate Britain, Kunsthalle Wien, MCA Sydney, Guggenheim Museum, and The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. She was winner of the Visual Arts category of the South Bank Awards, and is an Honorary Fellow of Edinburgh University.
Katie Paterson is represented by Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, and James Cohan Gallery, New York.
Specifically, these two works interested me.
Langjökull, Snæfellsjökull, Solheimajökull
2007
Sound recordings from three glaciers in Iceland were pressed into three records, then cast and frozen using the meltwater from each corresponding glacier. The discs of ice were then played simultaneously on three turntables until they melted completely.
She created three records of the sounds of melting glaciers, recorded them into vinyl and then pressed them into an ice record, played it then let it melt. I like the idea and the metaphor here but I think it fell a bit short, how much energy went into producing this record to make a statement and using something like vinyl within it, What I read in eco-sonic media about how terrible vinyl records are and she had to have pressed one to then create a cast for the ice record.
As The World Turns
2010
A turntable that rotates in synchronisation with the Earth, revolving once every 24 hours. Playing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, if performed from beginning to end, the record would play for four years, and be barely audible. The movement is so slow it is not visible to the naked eye, yet the record is turning, imperceptibly.
Now this one I like, the subtleness of it is really cool. For me, it brings a closer connection to the earth with the listener/watcher. As you can tell it is not moving, but in reality we are small compared to the Earth and our existence on this planet, we go by quickly. This installation shows us this in enhanced detail.