FTHo

February 15, 2002 -- The sun has just undergone an important change. Our star's magnetic field has flipped. The sun's magnetic north pole, which was in the northern hemisphere just a few months ago, now points south. It's a topsy-turvy situation, but not an unexpected one. "This always happens around the time of solar maximum," says David Hathaway, a solar physicist at the Marshall Space Flight Center. "The magnetic poles exchange places at the peak of the sunspot cycle. In fact, it's a good indication that Solar Max is really here." 

The sun's magnetic poles will remain as they are now, with the north magnetic pole pointing through the sun's southern hemisphere, until the year 2013 when they will reverse again. This transition happens, as far as we know, at the peak of every 11-year sunspot cycle - like clockwork.

The sun goes through dramatic changes every 11 years with unpredictable effects on our planet's life. Alexandre Estrela, in his first solo presentation in London, will demonstrate the direct effect that these changes have with two works: the installationAntipodes, a video scroll composed of two complementary images of ethereal molecular matter that defy the perceptive movement of a rotating planisphere as if endless; and Polar Inversion, a 16mm film which depicts an image of the Sun spontaneously composed by the passage of its rays through a small gap between trees, an autonomous image formed by an ephemeral camera obscura.

Alexandre Estrela's practice addresses formal and conceptual issues arising from the intersection of images and concrete matter, challenging the phenomenological instance of the observer. With recurring use of stereoscopy and other image production devices that defy human perception, his work bridges cognitive research and conceptual tradition through careful exploration of the specificities of the mediums of capture and projection. The results are enigmatic visual effects that explore the entropic quality of perception and confuse the observer, provoking a suspension of meaning via estrangement and illusion.

Alexandre Estrela is a Portuguese artist based in Lisbon. He teaches video at the Art Academy of Lisbon and, since 2007, has run in his studio, located in the former headquarters of a Merchant Sailors' Union, the film program Oporto, presenting rare experimental work by filmmakers. He is currently preparing a solo exhibition at Museu Serralves in Porto.

Margarida Mendes has been running The Barber Shop project space in Lisbon since 2009.