The Scientific Revolution that kicked off in the 16th Century brought about an influx in astronomical research and imagery. Drawing, by virtue of its capacity for detail, was used to make the cosmos perceptible. Though today’s new technologies allow us to reach distant borders, visualizing the universe in all its detail remains a complex negotiation. Even advances in photography have not diminished the importance of drawing in the field of astronomy. Perhaps only scientific study and artistic practice keep mark making and draughtsmanship from becoming obsolete. Amélie Bouvier positions herself between the two, using artistic methodology to embrace and re-imagine speculative studies of the solar system.

Collecting images of solar blasts, rogue asteroids, meteorite falls, and other cosmic phenomena, her practice proposes new interpretations to documents produced between the 17th and 21st century as it reflects on the social, geographical and political situations that informed their creation. Using the vocabulary of scientific drawings, studies, and photographs, Bouvier’s drawings reveal the bias of these images, which often guide our eye to certain points or hide errors due to mechanical repetitions. Through the creation of her own tools, Bouvier celebrates these errors, revealing a reality which is inseparable from human touch and interpretation.

With an interest for what is omitted or unknown, the works focus on the impossibility of science to be completely accurate; a point, which opens us to the fantastical aspects of astronomy and how imagination can’t be kept from the visualization of what we cannot see.

Courtesy of Harlan Levey Projects