I Would Bring You The Stars

2010

Documentation of event: firework bomb, wheelbarrow

Pigment print on archival paper

Location: Vatnajökull icecap, Iceland.  Photography: Michaela Gleave

 

A one-off event for only one viewer, I Would Bring You the Stars exploded into the gathering dusk at the base of the Vatnjökull icecap in the building Icelandic winter.  The light from the explosion continues out into the universe forever.  The bomb was constructed out of season, using one family’s leftover fireworks from the previous winter.

We were all once a star, we sailed alone in the cold universe, we burnt bright and celebrated the cycle of life. In our ephemeral existence, sometimes I wonder if you are gazing at the same star too at the same moment. As the light fades, leaving intricate lines of nature’s poetry, the snow, the sea, the clock all dance to a mysterious tune, a great symphony, its notes were written as stars, silence filled with fire, the journey continues, perhaps in another space and time, many stories of life are yet to be told under the stars that we are going to become. Theodore Wong

 

This project was assisted by the NES Artist Residency, a Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship and the Ian Potter Cultural Trust.