PER PULVEREM AD ASTRA

Per Pulverem Ad Astra 1.AP1 / 2007 / C-type photograph / 23 cm x 34 cm / unique print / source image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

Per Pulverem Ad Astra 2.AP1 / 2007 / C-type photograph / 23 cm x 34 cm / unique print / source image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

Per Pulverem Ad Astra 3.AP1 / 2007 / C-type photograph / 23 cm x 34 cm / unique print / source image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

For Per Pulverem Ad Astra, Eva Stenram made negatives from NASA’s digital images of Mars and let these gather dust in her apartment before printing them. The resulting marked image is a combination of extreme distance and extreme proximity, a simultaneous gravitational pull towards the earth, to the dust around – and by extension, towards death – and a pull upwards, into space, away from the earth, towards the attraction, both physical and fantastical, of Mars.

Inspired by a fascination for images from and of space, as well as surrealist photography (in particular Man Ray’s portfolio Electricité) and experiments in ‘thoughtography’ (attempts, originating in the late nineteenth century, to photograph mental images, which often appear as blurs and visual ‘static’), the series also invites debate around ownership, copyright, national borders and colonisation.

Prints from Per Pulverem Ad Astra are held in the permanent collections of Moderna Museet (SE) and the Victoria and Albert Museum (UK).

Supported by Pavilion Commissions Programme 2007.

Read also: The Remotely Infinite, or 'The Infinitely Remote: Eva Stenram's 'Per Pulverem Ad Astra by Ben Burbridge, from the catalogue of the Pavillion Commissions Programme 2007.

Per Pulverem Ad Astra 4.AP1 / 2007 / C-type photograph / 23 cm x 34 cm / unique print / source image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

Per Pulverem Ad Astra 5.AP1 / 2007 / C-type photograph / 23 cm x 34 cm / unique print / source image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

Per Pulverem Ad Astra 6.AP1 / 2007 / C-type photograph / 23 cm x 34 cm / unique print / source image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

Per Pulverem Ad Astra 7.AP1 / 2007 / C-type photograph / 23 cm x 34 cm / unique print / source image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

Per Pulverem Ad Astra 8.AP1 / 2007 / C-type photograph / 23 cm x 34 cm / unique print / source image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

Per Pulverem Ad Astra A.AP1 / 2007 / C-type photograph / 23 cm x 34 cm / unique print / source image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

Per Pulverem Ad Astra B.AP1 / 2007 / C-type photograph / 23 cm x 34 cm / unique print / source image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

Per Pulverem Ad Astra C.AP1 / 2007 / C-type photograph / 23 cm x 34 cm / unique print / source image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

See more sets of prints from Per Pulverem Ad Astra [coming soon]

Per Pulverem Ad Astra exhibited in 'A Handful of Dust', curated by David Campany, at Le Bal, Paris, 2015.

Per Pulverem Ad Astra exhibited in 'A Handful of Dust', curated by David Campany, at Ryerson Image Centre, Toronto, 2020.

Per Pulverem Ad Astra: 'A Handful of Dust' exterior display at Ryerson Image Centre, Toronto, 2020.

Per Pulverem Ad Astra exhibited in 'A Handful of Dust', curated by David Campany, at Polygon Gallery, Vancouver, 2020.

Per Pulverem Ad Astra installed in the exhibition Cadastral at Fotografisk Center, Copenhagen, 2022.

Per Pulverem Ad Astra installed in the exhibition Sensing Matter - From the Infra-thin to the Photographic Object, curated by Duncan Wooldridge at Punctum Gallery, Tallinn (EE).

See more sets of prints from Per Pulverem Ad Astra [coming soon]