Optic Ocean consists of a large, untreated canvas on which a text is screen printed in red and green, doubling up like in a misaligned projection and distorting the viewers’ vision.The text quotes a film script based on the first science-fiction narrative entitled Somnium, envisaged by the philosopher and optician Johannes Kepler. At the heart of Kepler’s thesis is the conviction that rational scientific hypotheses can lead to theoretical truths neither accessible to, nor necessarily verifiable by, pragmatic observational study. His prescient recognition of the limitations of direct observation and empirical enquiry led him to posit an ontology of vision based in scientific theory. Reminiscent of this parallelism the optical distortion of the is out of joint.
Optic Ocean, 2011 Silk-screen print on canvas, spotlight 180 x 270 cm Images: Installation view at carlier gebauer, Berlin, 2011 © Rosa Barba