Moult
Ah, not to be cut off,
not through the slightest partition
shut out from the law of the stars.
The inner ― what is it?
if not the intensified sky,
hurled through with birds and deep
with the winds of homecoming.
― Rainer Maria Rilke
Light and sculpture installation, 2016
Appearing infinite, a space is filled with over 600 individually hung laser-cut and black-lit feathers of Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea), filling the diameter of the installation space. The viewer could walk through the space, unaware of its boundaries but guided by the light emitting from the feathers.
Forming part of the extensive body of work 'Three times to the moon and back', Moult explores the Arctic tern's annual moulting, when the birds replace all their flight feathers on the wintering ground, becoming temporarily flightless.
Originally presented at the Tent Gallery, Edinburgh, the installation was exhibited at N-Mark Gallery, Nagoya, Japan.