Roman Ondak, Measuring the Universe
When looking into numbers and the significance they have on our lives as well as ourselves I came across Roman Ondak, and specifically his piece ‘Measuring the Universe’. With the viewers taking a vital role in the creation of Measuring the Universe’ the installation piece creates an experience for the viewers.
Starting as an empty white room, Roman Ondak’s Measuring the Universe at Tate St Ives has grown through the contribution of around 90’000 participants to a constellation of black marks. Through the simple action of measuring oneself, Ondak’s work doesn’t just expand on ideas of space and the universal but also the personal, creating a growing living artwork that questions just what a museum is for.
“I think we are probably around 90,000 at the moment and now as it gets really, really dense, peoples names are being written over, you know, maybe six or seven other peoples names and so they are already kind of obliterated at the moment that their names are written up, but somehow they still contribute to this black void that is appearing. When you see the peoples reaction to the work both physically and visually but also when they get measured, often they are very delighted and there is a very nice sense of a kind of closure to the exhibition. But at the end of the show everything will be painted over and everything will be gone but it will have had this life for this period and before that period will have been a very dynamic growing, living artwork.” - Martin Park, artistic director at the Tate, St Ives.
http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/tateshots-roman-ondak-measuring-universe
