Recently, the non-flat-earth paradigm

Swiss conceptual artist Christian Waldvogel’s works look at humanity from a distance, seeking to create an awareness about the wider context of our existence as beings inhabiting a sphere orbiting one of the countless stars in the universe. Often grounded in intricate scientific calculations, Waldvogel’s multi-media installations are humorous and contemplative.

Recently, the non-flat-earth paradigm was rediscovered by the artist who found that for a person in Kochi, India’s northernmost point lies 125 kilometers underneath the horizon, a fall that is equal to 15 times the height of India’s tallest mountain.

The site-specific installation, Recently, the non-flat-earth paradigm (2014), is a sculptural representation of this ‘rediscovery’. It depicts the part on the Earth’s curved surface delineated by India’s political border as seen by a beholder situated in Kochi. The curved atmosphere is shown here as an abstract but realistic layer of clouds.

According to the artist, in a broader sense, the work deals with the persisting notional difference between the universally accepted knowledge about the spherical shape of the planet we inhabit and our everyday experience of it as a flat surface. “It questions the relation between knowledge and experience, or passive and active vocabulary, and so challenges the adequacy of our intuition,” Waldvogel says.