the light from space
Since 2019, artist Cecilia Ömalm and astronomer Göran Östlin have been running an interdisciplinary project together under the name Ad Lucem/Till Ljuset. Now the duo's first edition artwork is available at ed-art.se.
Carina Nebula, detail is, as the name suggests, a detail of a larger image originally captured by the James Webb Telescope, the largest telescope in space that was shot up in space in 2021 to replace the well-known Hubble Telescope.
In their project, Ömalm Östlin explore both historical and contemporary material with connections to the cosmos. Based on older glass negatives or modern images of space transferred to glass negatives, they produce their own cyanotypes.
Cyanotype is a photographic method that mainly architects used from the middle of the 19th century to copy drawings, so-called blueprints. A glass negative is placed over a piece of paper and then exposed to UV light. The paper is coated with iron salts that give off a blue color when in contact with the UV light. When the paper is rinsed with water, the blue tone emerges and continues to deepen for up to a day.
The Carina Nebula is visible from the Southern Hemisphere as part of the Milky Way. With the help of the James Webb telescope's technology, it has been possible to see previously invisible parts of the nebula, including areas where stars are born.
Ömalm Östlin exhibited around thirty works at Liljevalchs in Stockholm during the summer of 2024 in the exhibition Stockholms Kosmologi and can also be seen at Fotografiska in Stockholm and Tallinn 2024-26 in the exhibition Space–A Visual Journey.
