Cookie Consent by Free Privacy Policy website Zac Langdon-Pole has commenced his BMW Art Journey.
february 19, 2019 - BMW

Zac Langdon-Pole has commenced his BMW Art Journey.

Hong Kong. #BMW Art Journey winner, Zac Langdon-Pole (represented by Michael Lett, Auckland), has completed the first leg of his journey and is now on the second leg with the aim of tracing the gaps and relations between the culturally-constructed star systems. Entitled ‘Sutures of the Sky: A Journey Tracing Obscured Histories of the Heavens’, the journey takes Langdon- Pole across a world which humans and birds have been navigating for millennia.

Langdon-Pole has thus far completed his journey in Europe and is currently travelling through the Pacific Islands of Hawaii, Samoa and finally New Zealand where he will consolidate his artwork. Inspired by ancient celestial tracing methodology, Langdon-Pole's journey questions the position of humans as the center of the world. Weaving through Europe, and the Pacific islands of Samoa and Hawaii, his Art Journey seeks to understand how culture intersects with the science of celestial mapping, and consequently how it transcends into larger existential inquiries about our identities and our location in this increasingly globalized world. In the latter half of this journey, he will follow the flight paths of birds that #travel along the earth’s axis where the Northern and Southern Hemispheres’ summers intersect. Transcending traditional art practices, Langdon-Pole will incorporate unlikely combinations of images, objects and histories from specific origins to trace the gaps, relations and interpolations between cultures, generations and epochs in his Art Journey.

Taking place in European cities of London, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Dordrecht, Paris, Montignac, and Marseille the first leg of Langdon-Pole’s journey provided a site for preliminary research on early printed star charts and representations of celestial mapping between different regions. In London, the artist visited the Royal Academy’s ‘Oceania’ exhibition, including works by indigenous artists and craftsmen spanning 500 years that demonstrate the astounding mobility of #people in the Pacific Islands throughout history.

In France, as part of the last stop of the artist’s journey in Europe, Langdon-Pole viewed a prehistoric map of the night sky situated within the Lascaux caves near Montignac. It dates back at least 16,500 years, depicting star constellations that were believed to keep track of astronomical events. The research and #travel during this leg of the #BMW Art Journey examined how the star systems of the Southern Hemisphere were imagined from a European perspective across various historical periods.

Further information in the press release to download