Ouroboros

Ouroboros, a term which refers to the intertwining makeup of the universe, sets the cosmos as a stage to locate the margins of our perception. This work of photography and installation portrays a repetitive loop between looking towards outer space and attempting to understand our planet. I pair images of people, scientific tools, and interiors, alongside images of abstracted landscapes of earth (or elsewhere). Grounded in an intense curiosity about outer space, I interrogate the need for scientific ordering, challenging our need for control over our surroundings. These concepts of seeing, both near and far, can elicit fear, wonder, ownership, and future-building.

Like our vision, the images are meant to obfuscate and confuse as much as they are meant to leave the viewer in awe. The work calls into question how we fashion the world around us based on the draw and intensity of outer space and science fiction.

I’ve placed the objects in isolation, revealing a tenuous, but webbed connection with everything around. And the people exist similarly, looking off, but at what? The point might be to imagine what is taking the viewers’ focus, but it also could be to look at their expression alone and see the joy, wonder and concentration on their faces.

David Steinberg is part of Der Greif X Grisebach: “New Positions”.