Instruments of the Anemoi

Instruments of the Anemoi are a set of dodecagon tablets cast in Snowcrete, a non-magnetic cement, as used in buildings at a magnetic observatory. Suggestive of the pedestals that support various instruments used in monitoring the Earths’ magnetic field they also respond to an ancient anemoscope “table of the winds” carved in marble around eighteen hundred years ago. Envisaged here as speculative objects wrought by the wind gods, the first emissaries of navigation and orientation. 

1. (south pointer) Snowcrete, copper, water, silver leaf, repurposed telescope tripod. A ‘silver fish’ floating in a hand beaten copper bowl echoes the oval shaped compass needle illustrated in Breve Compendio de la Sphera de la arte Navegar by Martin Cortes 1551. Wafer this fish shaped iron leaves used by 11th century Chinese geomancers for feng shui and navigation. These early precursors to the modern compass were known as the ‘south pointing fish’.
2. (magnes) Snowcrete, magnets, iron filings, nails, repurposed theodolite tripod. Nails and iron filings reveal an embedded magnetic field and hark back to the legend on the discovery of lodestone, a naturally magnetic mineral which recalls the story of Magnes the shepherd who noticed the nails in his shoes and the iron ferrel of his staff were attracted to the rock beneath his feet. 
3. (rose) Snowcrete, etched and patinated copper, repurposed telescope tripod. Etched and patinated copper pieces set in a wind rose arrangement allude to the ancient classification of the winds which developed over centuries with varying numbers of wind directions charted. The chart looked like the petals of a flower and became known as the rose of the winds. In this design we see the contemporary compass has its origins in human aspirations and efforts to explain and contain natural forces through geometric abstraction.
4. (thuban) Snowcrete, pigment, crystals, repurposed telescope tripod. Celestial naviation is referenced via the instrument studded with crystals that map the constellations around the North Pole. Polaris has not always been the Pole Star as Earth's axis of rotation wobbles over the course of about 26,000 years and many other stars take their turn at marking geographic North. Thuban was the pole star between two and four thousand years ago and is centred in this sculpture, with Polaris positioned above Earth's rotational axis.