Mira Putnam

ACENTRICSPACE第122位驻地艺术家

2024年六月驻地艺术家

Mira Putnam

No. 122 ACENTRICSPACE Resident Artist

June Resident Artist, 2024

Mira Putnam

关于艺术家 About the Artist

（美国 United States）

miraputnam.com

纵观人类历史，不可理解的事物常常用上帝的存在来解释。人类一直试图通过艺术、文学和音乐来了解上帝，但如果上帝不存在，我们在寻求什么呢？如果我们的目标不是了解或解释，而是超越可解释的事物，就像神秘主义之于神学一样，那会怎样？我对这些问题没有答案，但正是这种超越空间的体验是我创造事物的地方，也是我创造事物的原因。

精神病学家、《宇宙意识：人类心灵进化研究》一书的作者Richard Maurice Bucke描述了自己的一次神秘体验：“我看到宇宙不是由死物质组成的，相反，它是一种活生生的存在。” 宇宙和任何神一样鲜活，我想要了解它。

仰望宇宙。观察是望远镜和艺术家的目的。艺术家牺牲了望远镜的精确度，换取了触感，激发理解，使遥远的事物（人、地点、想法、时间）变得触手可及和可感。我可以通过詹姆斯·韦伯望远镜拍摄的合成照片“知道”我正在观察 135 亿年前的宇宙，但我无法通过电脑屏幕想象如此漫长的时间跨度。135亿和1350万在我脑海中占据着“大数”的相同定义，尽管它们在数量上相差 154.865 亿。当人类甚至难以理解微塑料的规模时，他们如何能够同时理解宇宙和夸克的大小和时间？

我的作品是我试图拼凑无限并弥合理解上的这一鸿沟。

Throughout human history, the incomprehensible is often explained by the existence of God. Humanity has sought to know God through art, literature, and music, but what are we seeking if God does not exist? What if the goal is not to know or explain, but to get beyond the explainable, as mysticism is to theology? I don’t have an answer to these questions, but this beyond space is where I make things and why I make them.

Describing a mystical experience of his own, psychiatrist and author of Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind Richard Maurice Bucke accounts “I saw that the universe is not composed of dead matter, but is, on the contrary, a living Presence”. The Universe is just as alive as any god and I want to know it.

Look at the Universe. Looking is the purpose of both the telescope and the artist. The artist sacrifices the accuracy of a telescope for a tactility that inspires understanding and makes remote things (people, places, ideas, time) accessible and felt. I can look at a composite photograph taken by the James Webb Telescope and “know” that I am looking at the universe 13.5 billion years ago, but I can’t actually conceive of a span of time that vast through my computer screen. 13.5 billion and 13.5 million occupy the same definition of “big number” in my brain despite being fifteen billion four hundred eighty-six million five hundred thousand apart in number. How can a human comprehend the size and time of the universe and a quark simultaneously when it is difficult to even comprehend the scale of microplastics?

My work is my attempt to piece together the infinite and bridge this gap in understanding.

过往作品 Previous Works

Perseverance

未上釉陶土 Unglazed Stoneware

6ft W x 8ft L x 5ft H

2021

God’s hazelnut is a black hole

综合材料 aluminum cans, resin, dowels, fiberglass, grout, marbles, stoneware [glazed and un], hot glue, refrigerator parts, Styrofoam, acrylic paint, paper, map pins, metal brackets, zip ties, sticks, twine, poster board, sugar globe, potting soil, simulated Mars regolith, potato, pipe bracket, plastic fruit container, shells from Sasha and Jack, Eli’s drawing, orange, photos, tape, 2 rocks, notebook covers, cyanotype, handmade paper, Japanese water chestnut, plastic cup, paper cup, sand, avocado pit, avocado skins, eggshells, bottle caps, found metal, plaster wrap, copper foil, 50/50 tin/lead solder, seeds, advent calendars, found glass, pit fired stoneware, found rock/metal[?] lump, leaf, window screen, beads, cardboard, pen, pencil

2023

Landscape

(Part of “god’s hazelnut is a black hole” installation)

综合材料 aluminum cans, fiberglass, grout, marbles, avocado skins, eggshells, bottle caps, copper foil, 50/50 tin/lead solder, seeds, soil

4 ft x 3 ft x 3 ft

2023

Cathedral Mound 4 (Hilde)

综合材料 stoneware, watercolor, gouache, fabric, cyanotype, pencil, perlite, copper

38” x 20” x 20”

2022

Globe. No 9

(part of “god’s hazelnut is a black hole” installation)

综合材料 refrigerator parts, grout, dirt, glue, magazine cutouts, photographs, tape, advent calendars, acrylic paint, orange, plastic container, found piece of floor, marble, pickle picker, hazelnut, wasp eggshell, stone, Japanese water chestnut, plastic cup, rock, ceramic, leaf, mesh screen, beads, thread

51 x 18 x 16 inches

2023