A Common Sun - Equinox Opening Event

Join us this Autumn Equinox for the opening event for the exhibition A Common Sun by Sculpture Town Artist in Residence (STAIR) Tom McDonagh. This event is part of Art History Festival 2024 organised by the Association for Art History.

A Common Sun will present two newly commissioned artworks, supported by Arts Council England, Harlow Art Trust & The Royal College of Art. A sculpture sited in the historic Water Gardens, responds to the remarkable instruments of Indian Astronomer Sawai Jai Singh and our attempts to orientate ourselves with the sun. In the Gibberd Gallery next door, a light installation collects and depicts a variety of solar myths and their continuing relevance to seeking balance in a fractured environment.

Our ever-changing relationship to the sun can be traced by the myths we imagine and the technologies we invent. Ancient myths have long told of human desire to control the sun - to both push away the sun or bring it closer.

Today’s technologies give us new solar powers and possibilities. Solar panels hold the utopic possibility of abundant, clean, affordable energy for all. At the same time, climate change is forcing some to consider geoengineering technologies to dim the sunlight reaching us. What proximity to the sun do we need and want?

Getting here:

The Water Gardens is a 20-minute walk, short taxi ride or ten-minute bus ride from Harlow Town Station. Trains to Harlow Town run every 20 minutes from London Liverpool Street, Tottenham Hale, Stratford and Cambridge train stations.

The closest parking is The Water Gardens shopping centre. Please let us know in advance if you have any access needs or requirements, such as disabled parking. There are disabled parking places in College Square, CM20 1AJ. These are closer to the Civic Centre and Gallery than the disabled parking places in the Water Gardens car park. Please email: [email protected]

About the Artist:

Tom McDonagh is a visual artist based in London, recently graduated from Royal College of Art. Tom's practice looks at the space between how things are and how things could be. He creates speculative installations using light, movement and silhouette, seeking a meeting place for our perception, imagination and politics. His practice asks how we actively repair and cultivate relations with one another and the biosphere. Tom is a STAIR08, Sculpture Town Artist in Residence.

Host or Publisher Tom McDonagh