“In the waters off of Komodo (Indonesia), where conservation work focuses on preserving the threatened marine environment of its coral reefs, Sandrow produced a series of panoramas constructed from pictures taken with the lens of her camera halfway under-water. The technique allows us to see the marine and terrestrial “landscape” simultaneously, although at different magnifications. Since each camera image is a single exposure, the composite panorama embeds time as well; the variations of color, horizon line, and point of view indicate that chance also plays a large role in the artist’s activity. In addition to the photographs, Sandrow has produced a video that describes her experiences on the trip and a website that functions as a day-by-day journal. The installation of this work also includes a series of boxes (arranged in 6 rows of 6) that contain powdered white chalk. The boxes are in the proportion of the Golden Rectangle, a form based in nature and revered by classical civilizations, and the chalk they hold is the ground remains of coral, the essential component of the reefs now being devastated by fishing techniques using dynamite and cyanide.” 

— Andy Grundberg, Curator, 2001

What’s true for space is true for time. — Hermann Minkowski, 1908

Nature lives in motion. — J. Hutton, 1785

The essential thing is that “physical reality”, thought of as being independent of the subjects experiencing it, was conceived as consisting, at least in principle, of space and time on one hand, and of permanently existing material points, moving with respect to space and time, on the other. The idea of the independent existence of space and time can be expressed drastically in this way: If matter were to disappear, space and time alone would remain behind (as a kind of stage for physical happening). — Albert Einstein, 1952

time(space) (1998 - 2001)

“A project commissioned (1998) by curator Andy Grundberg as part of the 5-year traveling museum exhibition In Response to Place, now in the collection of the Corcoran Collection in the National Gallery of Art (2006). Consisting of three large-scale photographic panoramas; a mixed media work composed of thirty-six boxes each in the proportion of a golden rectangle containing dead powdered coral; an interactive artwork composed of forty-six quick time movies, four virtual reality panoramas, and three photographs. Flux is inherent to all within our cosmos, a sacred time-space continuum examined in the panoramas (above vs. below); an Interactive Online artwork (past vs. present). And chalk-filled boxes (inside vs. outside), where the transitory element of nature is embodied in powdery white remains of coral (re)animated by exhibition viewers’ movements through the installation. Their footprints were visible amidst the chalk dust on the floor and are a metaphor for marks left on nature by humankind. The underwater photographs and videos were made with the camera tied to my chest. I jumped into swift-moving tidal currents of a deep blue sea to make my first color photographs - not unlike Alice’s Adventure in The Looking Glass. The center of the installation contains 36 paper boxes (the same boxes as in Water Life and Material Matters) filled with white chalk (dead coral) relating to the coral reefs that are threatened with extinction. Ironically, when this installation opened at the Corcoran on 9/11, I realized I’d been working towards the same day as those behind the attacks. The 9/11 tragedy altered the context of my installation to one of fear (the Corcoran was located across the street from The White House). It was thought that the boxes were filled with anthrax because Indonesians are primarily Muslim. This chain of events inspired the study spacetime. After having seen this exhibition, sixteen years later (2016) Former Chief Curator of Art in Embassies, Virginia Shore, commissioned, the fabric of time and space spacetime for the Embassy in Jakarta.”

— Hope Sandrow

time(space) online

Documentation composed of Forty-six Quicktime movies, four VR panoramas, and three still images on CD Rom.1/30.

Collection Corcoran Gallery of Art

Image: reproduction of an html page, displaying one still-frame from each Quicktime Movie and VR posted online

See exhibition and press list below.