‘SUNLIGHT’, Elizabeth Price’s large-scale video installation drew on historic slide imagery of the sun. ‘SUNLIGHT’ was Price’s first solo exhibition in a public gallery since winning the Turner Prize in 2012 and was developed as part of her Invisible Dust residency with the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL).

The first version of ‘SUNLIGHT’ was shown in 2013 at Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea. Elizabeth Price, is the first ever artist in residence with RAL where she worked alongside space scientist Dr Hugh Mortimer and was supported by the Leverhulme Trust. Price’s artwork often recreates environments or draws from historical archives and for this residency Price worked with Dr Mortimer; exploring his research and video footage and photographs in the Rutherford Appleton Space archive. Price spent over a year at RAL exploring their research; her residency focused on solar imagery and the archive of photographs scientists have taken of the sun since 1900.

Writers, artists and filmmakers from H. G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke to Stanley Kubrick have been inspired by space and our place in the Universe. Many other Space research organisations have created artists’ residencies such as NASA’s space programme; which has included artists Laurie Anderson and Tomas Saraceno.

In 2013 Invisible Dust produced a schools programme, Invisible Waves, with Hounsdown Secondary School in Southampton to accompany Elizabeth Price’s residency at RAL. This provided young people with an imaginative and stimulating way of engaging with Space Science and Climate Change.

Information on Dr Mortimer’s earth observation here.
Information about Elizabeth Price’s work at her gallery MOT International here.

Image: © SUNLIGHT, Elizabeth Price, courtesy of the artist and MOTInternational 2013.