| Planetary Landscapes – Opens at the Montshire January 17 |
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| Written by Lars Blackmore |
 Set off a comet-like vapor trail, turn on a coppery Martian dust devil, or control the formation and collapse of volcanic calderas in Planetary Landscapes: Sculpting the Solar System, which runs from January 17 through March 15, 2009 at the Montshire. In this series of eleven visual and tactile sculptures, internationally renowned artist Ned Kahn allows us to explore explore the dynamic forces that shape our solar system. The itchy truth—that there are limits to what we can really know about nature—informs all of Kahn’s work. Ned Kahn, MacArthur Fellow, was Artist-in-Residence at San Francisco’s Exploratorium. While creating some of their best-known exhibits, he worked closely with Dr. Frank Oppenheimer, the museum’s legendary founder and director. Kahn will be familiar to Montshire members as the builder of the Wind Wall on our north tower and as the inspiration for Rock Music in Science Park. Visitors will find the same combination of art and science in Planetary Landscapes, where they can manipulate simple forces like air or gravity to generate complex and beautiful patterns analogous to those found on Earth and on the other planets. Kahn’s fascination with astronomy was sparked by images: “You see a picture of a galaxy,” he says, “and you know that stars are speeding through it, gases are flowing in, and jets of plasma are shooting out. I wanted to see these things move. I wanted to animate these images; that was my jumping-off point.” To accomplish this, the artist combines familiar elements like fog and air, water and sand, air and water. The fluid, ever-changing results often bear startling resemblances to astronomical phenomena. “It’s sort of mindboggling,” Kahn says gleefully, “that a whole bunch of stars can behave in ways that are somewhat similar to a whole bunch of tiny water droplets.” In Planetary Landscapes, Ned Kahn has created an entire family of artworks that bring vast natural processes within our reach, and send our imaginations on a journey through the cosmos. Planetary Landscapes: Sculpting the Solar System was developed by the Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland, California, with support from the National Science Foundation. |