Stardust / Stjärnstoff

Stardust is a commissioned public art project outside of Uppsala in Sweden. I worked with a care-home for young adults with downs syndrome and cast their hands for the sculpture. The concept of Stardust was in dialogue with them thinking about our time on earth, our bodies representation and what will become of us after we die. So the glass prism which is handblown and cold grinded to shape its facett represent ‘cosmos’. Held by an 100% recycled aluminium frame which I made by shaping wax pieces making it look like kelp or petals welded onto the frame, with a technique similar to gemstone jewellery design. On its pole I attached cast hands from the participants of the carehome making them look like moss growing on a piece of timber to enhance the idea of time and regeneration. The black granite-quartz stone on the ground is shaped as a puddle handcarved and machine polished to get the black shiny top surface. The smaller red granite stone on-top is hand cut and hand polished to mimic the feel of a gemstone fallen into the black lake/ iced surface. The idea is that visitors can sit on the black lake and ponder the cosmos gazing up towards the prism where light plays with the facetts. Installed in midwinter the inauguration was in a snowfall. The prism is illuminated at night shaping a scene in the quite desolate suburban space outside of Uppsala.