Brighter Later, 2013
Green Templeton College, University of Oxford
As part of Oxford University's Radcliffe Observatory Quarter Public Art Programme, renowned artist and Director of the Slade School of Fine Art Susan Collins was commissioned to produce a temporary lighting installation for the Radcliffe Observatory at Green Templeton College. Collins took her cue from the origins of the Observatory and its architecture, which is based on the Tower of the Winds in Athens. Informed by its history and on-going role as a meteorological observation station, she transformed the Observatory into a beacon, lit from the interior, responding in real time to nature, the wind and the elements.
The installation was launched on the evening of 22 November and continued nightly to 1 December 2013 coinciding with Oxford city's annual Christmas Light Festival. The commission forms part of Tracing Venus, the Public Art Programme for the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, curated by Modus Operandi Art Consultants.
Susan Collins is Professor of Fine Art and Director of the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL where she established the Slade Centre for Electronic Media in Fine Art (SCEMFA) in 1995.
She works across public, gallery and online spaces employing transmission, networking and time as primary materials. Key works include the BAFTA nominated Tate in Space for Tate Online (2002); live pixel-by-pixel transmissions from remote landscapes including Fenlandia and Glenlandia (2004 and 2005); Seascape (2009) a solo show at the De La Warr Pavilion. Public Commissions include Underglow (2005-6), a network of illuminated drains for the City of London. Collins exhibits extensively both nationally and internationally.