"NGC-487" by Jan Pieter Fokkens

Chicago-based artist Jan Pieter Fokkens uses his work as a means of processing the incomprehensible. Navigating the relationship between algorithmic abstraction and the tangible qualities of pattern and color, Fokkens meditates on how reality is mediated by digital image. Entitled "NGC-487," this vibrant drawing offers a representation of the spiral galaxy NGC-487, located 250 million light years away from Earth. Using an image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, Fokkens extracts the average color of each coordinate, and uses archival markers to represent it as a single line upon the photo paper. The result is a reductionist account of an unimaginable sight.