[meteorite-list] Meteorite Sculpture by Katie Paterson

Michael Mulgrew mikestang at gmail.com
Thu Jul 31 15:44:47 EDT 2014


"Melting a meteorite and reforming it is a little bit like compressing
and merging together these layers of time, history and space.
Eventually I would like to send the meteorite back into Space,"

Replace "compressing and merging" with "destroying" and then you have
a valid statement.  Once melted and reformed, referring to it as a
meteorite is no
longer correct.

Michael in so. Cal.

On Thu, Jul 31, 2014 at 6:14 AM, Peter Davidson via Meteorite-list
<meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com> wrote:
> Dear Listoids
>
> I make no claim to be an expert on contemporary art/artists, nevertheless I have worked with a number of artists over the last few years in my role as a mineral curator for the National Museums and this has allowed me to get a glimpse of the way different artists devise, plan and execute their works. I haven't had the pleasure of working with Katie, but I do know her and I have met her and we have had some long discussions about meteorites and she does feature meteorites and space in her work a lot. So I feel I ought to give my angle on this as well as try and explain her work on the Campo using her own words.
>
> The original concept was formulated in around 2010/11 and the finished cast was exhibited in London in 2012. At about that time she gave an interview and the following quote is lifted directly from the published article:
>
> "...The artist domesticates the cosmos' immensity: she gives the unfathomable a human scale, putting it within our reach. "The cast meteorite will likely be placed on Exhibition Road (close to the Natural History Museum) in a discrete place, where people can sit around it and be able to touch it," she says. "Most meteorites have been travelling around space for over four and a half billion years. They are older than the Earth and are the oldest objects on Earth. I like the idea of this vast cosmic history embedded inside them. Melting a meteorite and reforming it is a little bit like compressing and merging together these layers of time, history and space. Eventually I would like to send the meteorite back into Space, though that might not be for many years."
>
> Well the many years have now past and Katie has send the recast meteorite into space.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Cheers
>
> Peter Davidson
> Senior Curator of Minerals
>
> National Museums Collection Centre
> 242 West Granton Road
> Edinburgh
> EH5 1JA
> 00 44 131 247 4283
> p.davidson at nms.ac.uk
>
> Discover the treasures of China's Ming dynasty at the National Museum of Scotland.
> Ming: The Golden Empire, 27 June-19 October 2014,
> www.nms.ac.uk/ming
>
> National Museums Scotland, Scottish Charity, No. SC 011130
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