Michael John Whelan
Video Installation
Film
Photography
Objects
Paper & Sound
Info
News
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)
Transit of Venus
2012
framed polaroid diptych
22 x 24cm
(1/3) Next




In 2012 the second part of a rare astronomical event called the transit of Venus occurred, the first part having taken place in 2004. The next occurrences of this event will be in 2117 and 2125. Transits of Venus are among the rarest of predictable celestial phenomena and involve the planet Venus travelling directly between the Earth and the Sun, resulting in a black speck moving across the surface of the sun. During this event two sequential polaroid exposures were made, using a standard focal length lens equivalent to the natural viewing perspective of the human eye. The technical limitations of the equipment resulted in landscape, rather than astronomical photographs; the chemical reaction of the polaroid film to the direct sunlight leaves a black disc in the sky where the sun would be. The actual transit of Venus is therefore not visible at all and remains merely an idea.