2010.27.1 Stellarator Wendelstein 7-X Detail Max Plank IPP, Greifswald, Germany

In this work, Thomas Struth investigates a site of discovery of the very basic forms of matter by means of atom acceleration and splitting, with the potential to alter how we exist in the world. The machinery he shows is clearly of the post-industrial age, but there is also the presence of everyday household materials holding these wires, tubes, and other objects together. Such humble materials suggest that although human beings are the creators of this machinery, a larger mystery remains, which nonetheless could affect us profoundly, even fundamentally. That the profusion of such materials resembles barely controlled, perhaps menacing, chaos provides a fascinating metaphor for our own feelings about the uncertainties inherent in probing nature at such fundamental levels.  

Charles Wylie, DMA unpublished material, 2010.

Until 2010: Thomas Struth (b. 1954)

2010: Dallas Museum of Art and the Rachofsky Collection, Dallas (owned jointly), purchased through Marian Goodman Gallery, New York [1], [2]

[1] See the copy of the Co-Tenancy Agreement in the Collections Records object file (2010.27.1).

[2] See the copy of the invoice dated May 18, 2010, in the Collections Records object file (2010.27.1).

Apply to objects where number equals 2010.27.1