TIME
CATALOGUE coming soon
TIME STREAM
(2024)
Artist Jane Brucker was selected to exhibit in Getty PST ART (formerly known as Pacific Standard Time in the exhibition “Crossing Over: Art and Science at Caltech, 1920–2020.” Claudia Bohn-Spector curated Jane Brucker’s section, “Time Stream,” which included six vignettes within the bookshelves and a time-based sculptural work above the doorway of the historic Gates Annex Chemistry Library. Elements from Brucker’s collection of found and inherited objects are combined with her study of the scientific instrument collection located within the Caltech Archives. Brucker’s installation is a tribute to relationship, science, the stars and the mystery of time. The lighting of the vignettes changes in time with the rhythm of one’s breath. Photograph above by Joshua White: Jane Brucker in Getty PST ART, 2024.
Five Dust Bottles + Archive Bottle
Four bottles address domestic dust and space dust. “Dust-to-dust” etched on the smallest bottle gives meaning to the ashes filling its handblown glass top. All five bottles together represent the desire to find remedies for devastating disease and the collecting that artists and scientists do. The sole “unlabeled bottle” from the Caltech Archives sparkles with a mysterious and unknown substance. Five Dust Bottles + Archive Bottle photographs by Gene Ogami.
Weight of Time (wait) + Egyptian Plumb Bob
Backed by a blue silk panel, the works in this vignette examine time. Brucker’s double pocket watch chain Weight of Time (wait) presents the content of every moment as relative. Meanwhile, Grace, her tiny hand-carved wooden chair sporting gold leaf feet and a watch face, is a reminder to sit tight. Finding balance through patience and poise, Brucker’s works are combined with an “Egyptian plumb bob” from the Caltech Archives. Weight of Time (wait) + Egyptian Plumb Bob photographs by Gene Ogami.
Gemini + Quadrant and the Heavens
Physicist Bob Hellwarth’s leather cufflink case is transformed into a celestial bed for the tiny cast-bronze twins of Gemini. Along with Brucker’s antennaed Moon Dance and framed Double Blue Moon, this pairing includes a quadrant and a miniature pocket sundial/compass, both from the 16th century. Gemini + Quadrant and the Heavens photographs by Gene Ogami.
Constellations
This pair of works references the body and the darkness of the night sky. Brucker sews the constellations Canis Major and the Big Dipper with thread and pearls from her grandmother’s necklaces. The black velvet displays are in the shape of a woman’s neck and in silhouette against a panel of bronze colored silk. Constellations photographs by Gene Ogami.
Magnetic Attraction
In this piece, Brucker embeds a tiny image of a woman into the framed point of the compass. An image of the companion of the woman is placed onto the larger magnet. When positioned nearby, the attraction of the magnet pulls the compass off course (as the force of love often does). Magnetic Attraction photographs by Gene Ogami.
Moon View (Hellwarth) + Barometer
In this vignette, Brucker combines physicist Bob Hellwarth’s tiny notebook and binoculars in her work Moon View (Hellwarth) with a “Barometer” from the Caltech Archives. The little book exhibited here holds Hellwarth’s tiny script with legible reference to lasers and persons of an era, many from Caltech where he was a postdoc under his close friend and mentor Richard Feynman. In 1960 Hellwarth witnessed the demonstration of the first ruby laser; a technology that was later used to measure distance to the Moon. Brucker adds a pair of etched eyeglass shades and small framed tin-type portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Universe. Moon View (Hellwarth) + Barometer photographs by Gene Ogami.
Niche
In the niche above the doorway is Brucker’s Time Poem—a digital screen placed within an antique tin frame. The digital poem plays words, dates or references related to time non chronologically. With the structure wrapped in 1950s Japanese silk, the work becomes a micropoetic clock tower. The text is composed of private and public moments taken from Space Race dates and domestic rituals related to time. Time Poem photographs by Gene Ogami.
