Post #82

Eyes of Wonder, Rhizome Star Art

I cannot help but have eyes of wonder. When something unexplainable and yet glorious comes into view, my heart stops and amazement of what I see captivates me. To come across the essay “Wonder, Stargazing and Utopia” written by Janine Marchessault, was to put words to my frequent states of wonder. Marchessault - a long-dedicated curator and spectator of Nuit Blanche Toronto - begins her essay with an image of Quasar 2.0: Star Incubator (2012), and an excerpt by poet Langston Hughes. Each of these sources were captivating, and I rekindled my love of public art, light and poetic phrases. Quasar 2.0 by Mark David Hosale and Jean-Michel Crettaz, was a fibre optic installation that elicited the complication of both utopia and dystopia – but was highly imbued with a wondrous network of light and circuitry. The installation was participatory in nature as it emitted kinetic patterns of the electromagnetic fields sensed in audiences, current weather data, and muon cosmic ray information.¹ Indeed, the visuality of this wondrous installation is described in a much earlier poem by Hughes...

A world I dream where black or white, Whatever race you be,
Will share the bounties of the earth And every man is free,
Where wretchedness will hang its head And joy, like a pearl
Attends the needs of all mankind- Of such I dream, my world!²

The world that Hughes describes is evidenced in the work Quasar 2.0. That joyful ‘pearl’ is bearing immediate witness through the light affected by those around it, and by whose pulses are registered in the moving masses of neon light. This artwork additionally possesses the rhizome qualities posited by Èdouard Glissant in his work, Poetics of Relations. Glissant describes the power of rhizomatic organisms as thriving whilst moving in a nomadic manner towards many geographies.³ He argues that rhizomatic thought embodies a principle by which each and every identity is extended through a relationship with the other.⁴ As the fibre-optics in Quasar 2.0 receive data from the surrounding bodies of people, an instant relationship is created and subsequently seen in the dynamic colour changes and light sequences.

Unless you’re a botanist, arborist, or gardener, you don’t often come face to face with rhizomatic lifeforms such as grasses or ferns; but it is necessary to recognize their important characteristics. Art that produces awe and wonder has the power to move, shake, grow, produce and enliven our understanding of interrelatedness through the creation of worlds that do not exist, and the unlocking of indistinguishable ones.⁵

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1 Janine Marchessault, “Wonder, Stargazing, Awe”, Holding Ground: Nuit Blanche and Other Ruptures, p. 176.

2 Marchessault, “Wonder, Stargazing, Awe”, p. 171.

3 Edouard Glissant, Poetics of Relation, University of Michigan Press, p. 11-14. 4 Glissant, Poetics of Relation.

4 Glissant, Poetics of Relation.

5 Marchessault, “Wonder, Stargazing, Awe”, p.181


Sources:
Marchessault, Janine. “Wonder, Stargazing, Awe”, Holding Ground: Nuit Blanche and Other

Ruptures. Edited by Julie Nagam and Janine Marchessault. 2022. Glissant, Èdouard. Poetics of Relation. University of Michigan Press. 2010.


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Patricia Dyck