From all the way out here, everything looks recent is a modular installation grappling with the timeline of the universe and our perceptions of time. Individual strands of retro-reflective thread are hand-stitched on top of black grosgrain ribbon with nylon monofilament thread in an oscillating pattern. This repetition of lines is informed by the Oscillating Model in Cosmology (also known as the Big Bounce Theory), which states that the universe undergoes infinite cycles of re-creation, beginning with a big bang and ending with a big crunch. According to this theory, the big bang was only the most recent big bang and the beginning of time was also an end. My work reiterates the idea that there is little distinction between the beginning and the end of the universe, and that perceptions of time are relative.

In The Fabric of the Cosmos, Brian Greene explains perceptions of ‘now’ and ‘time’ based on perspective:

Two individuals at rest relative to each other have identical conceptions of now and hence identical time slices. If one observer moves away from the other, their time slices– what each observer considers now– rotate relative to each other… A greater separation between the observers yields a greater deviation between slices– a greater deviation in their conception of now.

The title and experience of the installation conveys these ideas… each observer is standing in a unique position in space relative to the work, giving them their own individual perspective of the ribbons. Each ribbon has up to three cosmic cycles stitched onto it, which means that the observer is looking ‘outside in’ on the oscillating universe from where they are standing.

The gesture is to punk time.