ARTISTIC COMMENTARY
F U E L E D
B E R L I N A T N I G H T
A distinct line slithers through the inner city, a decades old scar, portioning East from West- the vestiges of deep divisions created by the Berlin wall can still be gleaned today from outer space. Symbolic of a past divide, Berlin’s shining lights also bring into focus a more present story unfolding. Streams of gas ceasing, a raging war to the East, murmurs of grid sabotages in the dark depths of the Berlin winter, these shimmering lights as seen high above the earth’s atmosphere, tell a tale of Berlin’s tour de force, against the odds. Taking in the lights, grateful for their existence, we visually immerse into some of the power behind it.
Photograph of German capital Berlin at night, captured by ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer on board the International Space Station.
She is our enabler, our absolute power, our endless source of energy and life-- a burnishing light standing above it all. We sense her warmth, her glow, feel her fiery temperament. She is the mother of it all.
Samuel Pierpont Langley (1834-1906), peered endlessly into clear skies with his telescope hoping to get closer to her secrets, wishing to unlock the mysteries behind her boundless energy. Using gold and black pen on paper, Langley brought to vivid life details of what he gleaned on her smoldering surface.
Ink pen on paper drawing of the sun’s surface, December 24th, 1873. Samuel Pierpont Langley.
BLAZING
