Slow Arc XI

Conrad Shawcross’s Slow Arc Inside a Cube XI (2020) is part of a series of caged light works by the artist. The piece explores the interplay between light and shadow.

The artist was inspired by the groundbreaking work of the late British chemist, Dorothy Hodgkin, who described the process of modeling pig insulin as being “like trying to work out the structure of a tree by only seeing its shadow.” Similarly, Slow Arc Inside a Cube XI invites us to see beyond the limits of human perception.

The artwork’s cage casts out shadows in the form of mesmerizing shapes, attempting to convey the expanse of space, depth of time and possible futures contained within our universe.