Artist Jop Vissers Vorstenbosch and client Nikhef unveiled a spectacular dynamic light painting today in the lobby of the newly renovated institute in Amsterdam.
The work measures three by two meters and is inspired by images and installations from the field of subatomic physics research.
Using mixed techniques, Vissers painted transparent, colourful paintings on eight Plexiglas panels depicting, among other things, lead collisions in the ALICE detector, gravitational waves in the space around black holes, CERN’s data network, accelerators, quarks, antimatter, and flashing neutrinos.
In preparation for the project, he visited CERN in Geneva last year to gather inspiration. In addition to the invisible world of particles, he was also fascinated by the often gigantic technical installations used for research.
For him, the work therefore also had to be visibly technical. “A kind of machine of visual impressions,” he says. The result is an ever-changing visual explosion of light, paint and glass in the Nikhef entrance hall.
According to the art committee’s assignment, the artwork had to bridge the invisible world of particles and the tangible world, and take Nikhef visitors into the institute’s world of experience.
Totally captivated
A discovery, says Vissers Vorstenbosch. “I was totally captivated by the invisible world that this research enters. It is abstract and often incomprehensible, but also intriguing and dizzying, and in principle accessible to everyone. That overwhelming experience is what this work is all about.”
In the light painting, the eight painted plates are placed in front of a LED light panel that illuminates them with all kinds of colours and distributions, revealing ever-changing patterns and images to the viewer.
The work titled “Improbable super-event” gains extra depth through a series of Plexiglas slats perpendicular to the image, on which patterns from particle detectors, formulas from particle physics, and Feynman diagrams are engraved. These can also be illuminated with LEDs.
Public space
Jop Vissers Vorstenbosch (Veghel 1986) is a visual artist who has made a name for himself with large projects in which he combines light and paintings, often in public spaces. He graduated from the Utrecht School of the Arts (HKU) in 2011 and has since had numerous exhibitions and location projects, often combinations of light installations and paintings.
He previously created a controversial window display for the public library on Neude in Utrecht. He works from his studio in a former fighter jet bunker at the former Soesterberg air base. In recent weeks, he has been installing his new work on location in Amsterdam.
Freely accessible
The Nikhef art project was made possible in part by a contribution from the Mondriaan Foundation. The work is located in the entrance hall of Nikhef, Amsterdam Science Park 105, on the right-hand wall in front of the entrance gates. It is freely accessible to the public during office hours, but can be viewed day and night through the glass facade of the building.
Below a photo report, please click on the photo to enlarge.
