Jennifer Steinkamp: Orbit 12

Jennifer Steinkamp employs computer animation and new media to create projection installations in order to explore ideas about nature, architecture, motion, and perception. Her digitally animated works make use of the interplay between actual space and illusionistic space, thus creating environments in which the  roles of the viewing subjects and the art objects become blurred.

Themes of the natural world as a spiritual and transcendent space abound in Orbit 12. Projected to monumental proportions on the gallery wall, constellations of bramble, branches, and leaves swirl and meander like celestial nebulae in constant flux, immersing the viewer. Winter’s bare limbs burst forth with colorful blossoms and lush summer canopies give way to autumn’s warm brilliance in a never-ending cycle of seasonal death and rebirth.

The film, a generous gift of the Mint Museum Auxiliary, is on view in the Level 4 Media Gallery.