Jeffrey Shaw, Harry de Wit
Heavens Gate
1987
© Jeffrey Shaw, Harry de Wit; Photo © Photo: Jeffrey Shaw
- Artist / Artist group
- Jeffrey Shaw, Harry de Wit
- Title
- Heavens Gate
- Year
- 1987
- Category
- Installation
- Video
- Computer-generated
- Format
- Video Installation
- Material / Technique
- video (color, sound), media player, video projector, mirror; digital video processing: Quantel Mirage
- Dimensions / Duration
- Installation: 520 x 400 x 300 cm; video: 00:15:03
- Collection
- ZKM | Center for Art and Media
- Description
- The installation consists of a tall, completely darkened room with a three by four metre video image projected onto the ceiling. On the floor lies a mirror of the same size, which visitors can walk on. Those who stand on this mirror and look down do not see the floor but the ceiling: their own reflection merges with the reflected projection. In the darkness, spatial coordinates dissolve, and up and down, body and image, become suspended. The projected images move between two worlds: Baroque ceiling painting and satellite photographs of Earth. Both image types are digitally decomposed, their pixels manipulated and anamorphically reassembled in a virtual three-dimensional space. What emerges is a digital trompe-l'œil that interweaves the ecstatic Baroque gaze towards the heavens with the modern view from space down to Earth. The vertical axis that once separated the earthly from the divine loses its clarity. Shaw thus draws on a pictorial tradition that extends from Baroque ceiling paintings through El Greco's ascensions to Piero Manzoni's conceptual works – and connects it with the aerial perspective of the Futurists and the technical gaze of satellite photography. The installation was first shown in 1987 in the stairwell of Felix Meritis in Amsterdam. Since then, it has been presented in specially constructed rooms.
Author
MR
Images
Jeffrey Shaw, Harry de Wit, »Heavens Gate«, 1987, Video player, projector,speaker, mirrors, © Jeffrey Shaw, Harry de Wit; Photo © Photo: Jeffrey Shaw© Jeffrey Shaw, Harry de Wit; Photo © Photo: Jeffrey Shaw
Jeffrey Shaw, Harry de Wit, »Heavens Gate«, 1987, video (color, sound), media player, video projector, mirror; digital video processing: Quantel Mirage, Installation: 520 x 400 x 300 cm; video: 00:15:03. ZKM | Center for Art and Media © Jeffrey Shaw, Harry de Wit© Jeffrey Shaw, Harry de Wit; Photo © Photo: Jeffrey Shaw
Jeffrey Shaw, Harry de Wit, »Heavens Gate«, 1987, video (color, sound), media player, video projector, mirror; digital video processing: Quantel Mirage, Installation: 520 x 400 x 300 cm; video: 00:15:03. ZKM | Center for Art and Media © Jeffrey Shaw, Harry de Wit© Jeffrey Shaw, Harry de Wit; Photo © Photo: Jeffrey Shaw
Jeffrey Shaw, Harry de Wit, »Heavens Gate«, 1987, video (color, sound), media player, video projector, mirror; digital video processing: Quantel Mirage, Installation: 520 x 400 x 300 cm; video: 00:15:03. ZKM | Center for Art and Media © Jeffrey Shaw, Harry de Wit© Jeffrey Shaw, Harry de Wit; Photo © Photo: Jeffrey Shaw
Jeffrey Shaw, Harry de Wit, »Heavens Gate«, 1987, video (color, sound), media player, video projector, mirror; digital video processing: Quantel Mirage, Installation: 520 x 400 x 300 cm; video: 00:15:03. ZKM | Center for Art and Media © Jeffrey Shaw, Harry de Wit© Jeffrey Shaw, Harry de Wit; Photo © Photo: Jeffrey Shaw
