Speculators of the Final Frontier
**This text originally appeared in SADMAG the Space Issue in December of 2017.
Time exists in order that everything doesn't happen all at once....
and space exists so that it doesn't all happen to you.
-Susan Sontag, At The Same Time: Essays and Speeches, 2007
It is only in recent years, thanks to quantum mechanics, that our perception of space and time has changed. Our hypothesized, inception of the universe is based on an explosive first impression; Big Bang theory is one of the dominant universe creation hypotheses. A theory where a singularity expanded exponentially, doubling in size and mass, several hundred times over, in just a few incremental fractions of a second. 13.7 billion years later, we are still trying to comprehend this micro-instant. It was, after all, a place where time and space existed in dimensions beyond our capacity for comprehension (for now).
Fear not, for there are those who seek to understand the strangeness of time and space. Two such artists and investigators, UK based Jem Finer and Vancouver based Fei Disbrow are adept at transplanting viewers and listeners into altered space-time realities.
In the late ‘90s, Finer conceived of a piece of music that would play for 1,000 years. Longplayer exists as both art object and ongoing musical performance; its composition, lasting for a millennium, and its physical manifestation, designed to play continuously for the millennium. Longplayer started playing midday, December 31, 1999, in London, England. It has been playing for over 17 years now. One can tune-in anytime to hear the current ethereal phase as it unfolds.
Then there is Disbrow's Eccentric Journeys collage series is made from printed paper cuttings. A planetary aesthetic prevails in this work; groups of abstract texture, pattern and colour form solid structures that emit bountiful ocular signals. They hover above pristine backdrops of white space. The series invites viewers to circumnavigate flat and multi-dimensional aspects of these compositions.
In Finer and Disbrow's work, time is activated in very different ways. When one encounters Finer's piece, they conceive of time beyond their own life-cycle. Finer's ethereal composition compels us to ponder metaphysical constructs of interstellar time, it forces an expansion in the mind. Time is drawn out. Disbrow's work, on the other hand, has a visceral immediacy to it. Her work stops time, each piece implanting an instant and bold retinal impression. Disbrow synthesizes abstraction into a compelling singularity, a force to be reckoned with.
Expansion and contraction play a key part in reading both works. Both artists play with the notion of space in unique ways. Disbrow explores the void, her planetary entities stranded in isolation. Like a languishing blue dwarf star light years away, each composition is its own spectacular swan song of magazine cuttings, an isolated and imaginative gesture of reconfiguration to dive into. When viewed in series, the works form a cloud of connective thought patterns; their existence intangible but visibly interconnected. Finer's work sends the viewer inwards, directing them to the resonant frequency of their bodies in relation to other object bodies (singing bowls). Longplayer can be streamed live anywhere with an internet connection. Knowledge of this creates the opportunity for boundless universal experience, but it also comes with heavy existential introspection on time.
Susan Sontag surmises, 'Time exists so that everything doesn't happen all at once.' That is of course, unless you are observing the Eccentric Journeys series by Fei Disbrow. Each collage is a confluence of time projected onto a two-dimensional plane of infinite density - a singularity. Like the attack and decay of a note, first impressions of Disbrow's work start with a sharp, loud bang, colour and shape vibrate voraciously. As the note decays, other layers become audible (visible); texture, context, and concepts undulate ad infinitum. Finer's work impresses a feedback loop on the listener. For most who encounter Longplayer, it is introduced conceptually first. One becomes overwhelmingly lost in the conception of time as they once knew it... Then they experience the esoteric singing bowl vibrations of the work, and they are brought into a granular and embodied present.
Both artists posit the viewer/listener into a multidimensional space, one where a fraction of a millionth of a second contains a 1,000, if not 13.7 billion years-worth of resonance. Brace yourself... time and space - it's all happening to you, all at once.
About the artists:
Fei Disbrow lives and works in Vancouver. https://fei.viewbook.com/
Jem Finer is an artist who lives and works in the United Kingdom. http://jemfiner.net/
