
opening today at Haunch of Venison’s new space, a mini-retrospective of work by Katie Paterson sees 100 Billion Suns sitting alongside other intergalactic projects – both past and future. first staged at last year’s Venice biennale, the title work consists of a small canon which will fire at 1pm daily, releasing a burst of 3,261 pieces of confetti colour-matched to recorded gamma-ray bursts: cosmic explosions which burn with a luminosity 100 billion times that of our sun
also on show is new correspondence from The Dying Star Letters series, in which Paterson writes a condolence letter every time a star dies and sends it by post from wherever she happens to be, and a clip recorded off the television in New York showing a minute of Ancient Darkness TV in between regularly schedule programming

alongside a few other select works, the show also features images from a forthcoming project, in which Paterson is planning to cast, melt-down and then reforge an iron-nickel meteorite, conducting scientific experiments as part of the process. simple and playful, yet imaginative and thought-provoking, Paterson’s work provides the chance the think far beyond the confines of the gallery’s walls
“I think the imagination is the most important thing in all these works,” she explains, “because what you actually see is quite subtle and minimal. It’s the thing the work refers to – whether that’s the furthest point in the universe or an extremely bright event – and the way you imagine it in your mind, that’s the artwork as well”
100 Billion Suns is at Haunch of Venison’s Eastcastle Street gallery until 28 April 2012
top image:
100 Billion Suns
2011
Installation view Venice
Photo © MJC, 2011
Courtesy of the artist
lower image:
installation view by Peter Mallet

















































