New sculpture tracks lunar, solar movement

Western Today staff

October 17, 2014

Photographer and artist Rebecca Cummins and her collaborator Paul Demarinis dedicated the newly installed “Lunar Drift” sculpture in Western Washington University’s Miller Hall Collaborative Space in a special ceremony Oct. 11 on campus.

“Lunar Drift” is the most recent addition to the Western Sculpture Collection. Commissioned by the Washington State Arts Commission in partnership with Western, "Lunar Drift" is two slow-time kinetic sculptures that will constantly point at the moon and to the sun, wherever they are located, lending a continual presence to the entire path of their movements. Digital images of the moon and the daytime sky accompany the mechatronic elements.

Cummins’ work explores the sculptural, experiential and sometimes humorous possibilities of light and natural phenomena (often referencing the history of optics). Over the past year, she has been investigating the apparent movement of the sun in a series of works that have been realized sculpturally and photographically, including large-scale sundials and a Seattle Public Library commission for an aperture sundial installation in the new Montlake Public Library. Several recent photographic projects record the movement of shadows over regular intervals of time.

Cummins received the 2014 Honored Educator award as part of the Society for Photographic Education's Northwest Regional Conference at the ceremony Oct. 11. She was also awarded the Chancellor's Award from the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia, for her 2003 doctoral dissertation entitled 'Necro-Techno: Examples from an Archeology of Media.' She moved to Seattle, Washington in 2001 after 17 years in Sydney.

For more information on “Lunar Drift,” contact Chris Casquilho, Western’s College of Fine and Performing Arts manager of Marketing and Special Events, at 360-650-2829, or chris.casquilho@wwu.edu.

The "Lunar Drif" sculpture features digital images of the moon and the daytime sky that accompany mechatronic elements that will constantly point at the moon and to the sun, wherever they are located, lending a continual presence to the entire path of the
The "Lunar Drif" sculpture features digital images of the moon and the daytime sky that accompany mechatronic elements that will constantly point at the moon and to the sun, wherever they are located, lending a continual presence to the entire path of the
The "Lunar Drif" sculpture features digital images of the moon and the daytime sky that accompany mechatronic elements that will constantly point at the moon and to the sun, wherever they are located, lending a continual presence to the entire path of the
The "Lunar Drif" sculpture features digital images of the moon and the daytime sky that accompany mechatronic elements that will constantly point at the moon and to the sun, wherever they are located, lending a continual presence to the entire path of the