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Artworks on View
Art is everywhere at the Exploratorium. Here are some of the artworks currently on display—and where to find them.
Spectral Meadow
Pete Stephens, 2013
Watch the patterns change as the Earth turns and the Sun moves across the sky.
Where: Osher Gallery 1: Human Phenomenon
Still Life
Sam Taylor-Wood, 2001
In the celebrated film Still Life, an impossibly beautiful bowl of fruit decays at an accelerated pace via time-lapse editing, transforming a timeless scene into a visceral memento mori. On loan from the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection.
Where: Gallery 4: Living Systems
Sun Painting
Robert Larue (Bob) Miller, 1971
Created by artist Bob Miller, this classic Exploratorium exhibit is a “live” painting that uses light from the Sun as its palette.
Where: Bechtel Gallery 3: Seeing & Listening
Sun Swarm
Chris Bell, 2013
An elevated topography of silvered squares inserted between the water and the sky, Sun Swarm is an architectural intervention that collects and disperses bits of sunlight across the deck of Pier 17.
Where: Gallery 5: Outdoor Exhibits
Sweeper's Clock
Maarten Baas, 2010
Sweeper's Clock is a 12-hour-long movie in which two performers replicate an analog clock by sweeping two piles of garbage.
Where: Crossroads: Getting Started
The Atmosphere: A Guide
Amy Balkin, 2013
This poster-essay depicts human influences on the sky and their accumulated traces, whether chemical, narrative, spatial, or political. Visually referencing the Cloud Code Chart, the guide explores ways that humans literally and figuratively occupy the present, past, and future atmosphere, from sea level to the exosphere.
Where: Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery 6: Observing Landscapes
Time Shift
Ken Murphy, 2013
A visual work that allows viewers to browse and select from an archive of time-lapse sequences that reveal human and natural processes at work in the local landscape.
Where: Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery 6: Observing Landscapes
Timepieces (Solar System)
Katie Paterson, 2014
Timepieces provokes us to reconsider everyday timekeeping by presenting the time on other celestial bodies. These nine clocks show the current time on other planets and our moon.
Where: Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery 6: Observing Landscapes
Tinkerer's Clock
Tim Hunkin, 2013
Check out a clock full of tinkerers that chimes the time.
Where: Gallery 2: Tinkering
Tornado
Ned Kahn, 1986
Fans simulate the swirling airflow in a thunderstorm and fog machines make the pattern visible, creating a miniature tornado that you can disturb with the wave of a hand.
Where: Gallery 4: Living Systems
Triple-Aye Lightstick
Bill Bell, 1983
A sweeping glance creates images that appear and disappear in the blink of an eye. This phenomenon, called persistence of vision, is also at work in videos and movie projections, which also flash on and off rapidly.
Where: Bechtel Gallery 3: Seeing & Listening
Turbulent Orb
Ned Kahn, 1994
Swirling turbulent patterns evoke the atmosphere of our own spinning planet.
Where: Gallery 4: Living Systems
Vortex
Douglas Hollis, 1979
A twist of a knob sets water jets in motion, causing water in this giant cylindrical tank to spin. Soon, a tiny vortex appears at the surface, gradually swelling in size as it snakes downward.
Where: Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery 6, Mezzanine
Water Waves—Time Horizon
Andrej Zdravič, 1993
Water Waves is a multi-monitor video installation and time-horizon study of the power and beauty of ocean waves.
Where: Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery 6, Mezzanine
Within 15 Minutes
Alma Haser, 2017
Alma Haser photographed sets of identical twins and made them into identical jigsaw puzzles. She then swapped every other piece of their puzzles, completely mixing them half and half. Not always knowing where their eyes mouth, and lips would end up, the result is a pair of eerie, unrecognizable portraits.
Where: Gallery 4: Living Systems
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