Beta Space

Description

Long interested in the mysteries of the night sky and the natural world, internationally-recognized artist Diana Thater will create a dramatic, new video and light installation based on her fascination with the dung beetle (or rainbow scarab) and its relationship to our galaxy as well as with high-tech astronomical imagery. The beetle is the onlyknown member of the animal kingdom that uses the luminous band of the Milky Way for orientation. Larger-than-life moving images of the jewel-like insect will float through animations of the Milky Way on the barrel-vaulted ceiling of SJMA's soaring Central Skylight Gallery, twenty-seven feet high at its apex.

Thater will envelop the gallery with cosmic blue-green light to create an otherworldly environment. Her project links the Santa Clara Valley’s rich agricultural history with its current technological resources; the region has long been a national and international center of astronomical activity. She is collaborating with Dr. Puragra Guha Thakurta, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and UCO/Lick Observatory in Mount Hamilton, and a leading international expert on the formation and evolution of galaxies. Guha Thakurta has advised Thater on the selection of images and animations of the Milky Way created scientific observations of the universe generated primarily with the Hubble Space Telescope. The exhibition is the fourth in SJMA's ongoing series "Beta Space," which serves as an experimental laboratory for artists, collaborative ventures, and catalytic ideas.

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http://www.SanJoseMuseumofArt.org

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408.271.6840

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