"Study for NGC-2244" 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-2244," this drawing offers a representation of the open star cluster known as Caldwell 50, located 5,000 light-years away from Earth in the Rosetta Nebula. This cluster contains super hot O-type stars that emit high amounts of radiation and stellar winds. Working from telescope imagery, Fokkens extracts the average color of each coordinate and uses archival ink to represent it as a single line upon photo paper. The result is a reductionist account of an unimaginable sight.

Framed. Pigment ink on photo paper.