Michael John Whelan
Video Installation
Film
Photography
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Echoes of evaporation
and submergence

1991
And they did live by watchfires
Nocturne
Untitled
Darkness had no need
These last breaths
The time of cruel wonders
was not yet over

In the black dark for good
Carapace
That we were to wait
Like force and matter
Lupus
20 Vertices, 30 Edges
and 160 Diagonals

Dune
Transit of Venus
Over the echoing gateway
Stars/Star
Shadowplay
Archway (diptych)
Stars/Star
2012
framed monochrome polaroids
22 x 24cm
(1/5) Next




'Stars' captures long exposure images of star trails in a manner normally associated with traditional astrophotography. With the polaroid medium there is no reproducible negative, so each image is unique, questioning the relationship with our spectacular and often photographed cosmos. 'Star' uses the smallest aperture and fastest shutter speed of a medium format camera. Pointed directly at the sun, a minuscule exposure time results in a blinding image of our sun. By using the Hasselblad square format, the Polaroid is only partly exposed and therefore its unexposed blackness becomes an important element of the work.