Angela Bulloch Night Sky: Sculptor Square, 2022

The works of the Night Sky series are complex LED pieces that can be hung on the wall or ceiling and that convey an animated image of the night sky. The dark blue background of the work is filled with numerous programmed LED lights, placed according to the pattern of a galaxy or constellation. Gently flickering, the points of light simulate the changing starry night scape.

The constellation of this Night Sky work, Sculptor, is alocated in the southern sky. It was introduced by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in the 18th century for whom it represented a sculptor's studio. He originally named it Apparatus Sculptoris (the sculptor's studio), but the name was later shortened.

Night Sky works are prepared using a program that maps the positions of the stars visible from the earth in a 3D virtual model of the universe. The artist selects an existing area of the sky but displaces the viewpoint away from Earth elsewhere in the universe, thus the final image represents the real stellar order but shown in a way that will never be seen from the earth. The change of perspective allows us to contemplate a myriad of possible ways of seeing the formations of the universe.