The
Kepler Star
(Norwegian Peace Star)
At the heart of Vebjørn Sand's
artistic philosophy rest the history of Western art and science.
Euclidian geometry, the highest form of beauty to the Renaissance
thinkers, is revisited by this contemporary artist as a way
of reinvigorating spiritual traditions in art lost in a blizzard
of curatorial theory since the early sixties.
In his conceptual installation, The Kepler
Star, Sand creates a prismatic portal into the Euclidian world
where the icosahedron and the dodecahedron form the core of
a great star latticed in steel and glass.
Commissioned as a landmark symbol of a
planned community near Oslo's international airport, Gardermoen
Næringspark, The Kepler Star was unveiled as part of
the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize ceremonies. Dubbed "The
Peace Star" by the press, the sculpture was illuminated
as part of the global millennial celebrations. It is the tallest
sculpture in Norway at 45-meters, including the pedestal tower.
The structure draws its inspiration from
a star-form first conceived by German astronomer, Johannes
Kepler (1571-1630.) It consists of twenty three-sided pyramids
radiating from the core. The Star itself is 14-meters high
and 14-meters wide. The giant structure was covered in specially
fractured glass to create a dazzling illuminated sculpture
visible from the air and floating above the fir trees of the
countryside.
The problem on the minds of architects, urban
planners and structural engineers throughout the world at
the beginning of the twenty-first century is how to bring
beauty back into our urban landscape. Could the structures
and objects of our community life be informed by the history
of beauty and symmetry that are the extraordinary gifts of
human thought, rather than the prefab plastic composition
of so much of the current landscape? Is it too much to ask
for the ordinary person commuting to work to be able to find
inspiration and encouragement in the graceful forms and symbols
of our history wedded with the structural and material innovations
of the present?
The Norwegian Kepler Star installation
shows how this melding is possible.
Links to information about the
Kepler Star.
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