Artwork that can only be seen at night at ASTROlab – Arts & Culture – EstriePlus.com | Web News Magazine | Sherbrooke

The ASTROLab laboratory at Mont Mégantic unveils a luminous southern sky and a new work of astronomical art with artist Ida Rivard.

A multidisciplinary and self-taught artist, he brings together initially heterogeneous materials that together form a coherent whole, as can humanity in its social relations and the stellar megalith. Created with luminous paint, it is an original medium that skillfully explored its possibilities. In addition, on clear or cloudy days, Astrolab visitors can now spot on the grounds of the observation area, in the evening, planetary constellations such as the Southern Cross, the Toucan or the Crane, and famous stars such as Alpha Centauri and Canopus. . There are even two Magellanic Clouds, these famous dwarf galaxies that can be clearly seen with the naked eye!

After the work had been gradually carried on over the summer, many young and old alike had occasion to marvel and exclaim excitedly, “Wow, I walk in the stars!”. With a greater density of stars, the southern Milky Way created by Ms. Rivard attracts attention, and creates a real experience when moving through it in the dark.

When the sky is clear, visitors can now enjoy the spectacle of looking up into the sky and looking down at their feet, while better realizing that we are all floating among the stars. For this artist, it was somewhat of a “beautiful vertigo”: “This collaboration has allowed me to study constellations all over the planet; I hope that this new work will invite us to bring ourselves back to the infinitely small, and perhaps to take a better care of our land of many wonders.

Because if the earth suddenly disappeared under our feet, what would we see? The stars of course! Hidden from the eyes of the people of the northern hemisphere, the southern sky hides many treasures. To highlight it, and add a little magic to the new observation area, the Astrolabe Lab is opening a one-of-a-kind artwork, which becomes visible at night.