A grain of sand in the universe. The stars in your eyes. You’re in the clouds. I love you as big as the world. Metaphors connecting the microcosm with the macrocosm are legion. With the advent of modernity, technological development has enabled scientists to connect the infinitely small with the infinitely huge. Think of the structure of the atom and that of our galaxy. So it’s hard to avoid all-too-human existential questions. What place do human beings have in the precarious balance of the universe? What meaning does our short life have in the infinity of things?

 

The August theme at Quarantined Museum was inspired by the work of Carl Trahan, whose solo exhibition Away From All Suns is currently on view at the Musée until September 6. Trahan’s practice is inspired by, among other things, the texts of writers and philosophers who have broached both the depths of the human psyche and the dark history of Fascism. In particular, among the works integrated into the gallery devoted to the Musée’s permanent collection of sacred art are two closely-positioned objects: a meteorite, and a glass mould of the interstice between two joined hands. How may we comprehend—in the sense of embracing, grasping in its entirety, apprehending—the infinite from which we emerge? Its very contemplation is a tremendous effort.

 

👉As part of this call for submissions, we invite you to consider the infinitely large and the infinitely small, as well as that place we occupy between the two. What is the biggest work of art you’ve seen with your own eyes? The smallest? Do you often look at the stars? What do you see? Did you ever observe an organic material under a microscope? An ant farm in an aquarium? What happens when you change scale? Do you have a bonsai at home? Do you love miniatures? Are you afraid of heights? Is life long? Why not explore these ideas with sand, expandable foam, graphite, macro photography, or star dust?