"LHA 120-N 51" by Jan Pieter Fokkens

Chicago-based artist Jan Pieter Fokkens uses his work as a means of processing the incomprehensible. Navigating the relationship between algorithmic abstraction and the tangible qualities of pattern and color, Fokkens meditates on how reality is mediated by digital image. Entitled "LHA 120-N 51," this colorful drawing offers a representation of the emission nebula LHA 120-N 51 of the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy, located 150,000 light years away from Earth. Using optical data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, Fokkens extracts the average color of each coordinate, and uses archival markers to represent it as a single line upon the photo paper. The result is a reductionist account of an unimaginable sight.

Framed. Pigment ink on photo paper.