As part of Oxford University's Radcliffe Observatory Quarter Public Art Programme, renowned artist and Director of the Slade School of Fine Art Susan Collins has been commissioned to produce a temporary lighting installation for the Radcliffe Observatory at Green Templeton College. Collins has taken her cue from the origins of the Observatory and its architecture, which is based on the Tower of the Winds in Athens. Informed by its history and on-going role as a meteorological observation station, she will transform the Observatory into a beacon, lit from the interior, responding in real time to nature, the wind and the elements.
The installation will commence on the evening of 22 November in concert with Oxford’s Christmas Light Festival 2013 and continues nightly to 1 December 2013. It forms part of Tracing Venus, the Public Art Programme for the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, curated by Modus Operandi Art Consultants. External view only, no public access to the Radcliffe Observatory or Green Templeton College.
Susan Collins works across public, gallery and online spaces employing transmission, networking and time as primary materials. Most of her work is made in response to specific sites and situations. Key works include the BAFTA nominated Tate in Space for Tate Online (2002); live pixel-by-pixel transmissions from remote landscapes including Fenlandia and Glenlandia (2004 and 2005);Seascape (2009) and Love Brid (2009), a short film for Animate Projects. Public Commissions include Underglow (2005-6), a network of illuminated drains for the City of London. Collins exhibits extensively both nationally and internationally.
Susan Collins is Professor of Fine Art and Director of the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL where she established the Slade Centre for Electronic Media in Fine Art (SCEMFA) in 1995.
