Hybrid Solitary Semi-Social Instrument

Tomás Saraceno

Hybrid Dark Solitary Semi-Social Cluster Kepler-20 E Built By: A Solo Aranea Diadema — One Week and A Solo Cyrtophora Citricola —Two Weeks, Rotated 270°

Inside a plexiglass cube, two spiders from the species Aranea Diadema and Cyrtophora Citricola have spun interconnecting webs, whilst at the artist's laboratory in the rainforests of Ecuador.

Saraceno has developed an interest in astrophysics using arachnology, (the study of spiders), as an alternative tool for investigating the cosmos, in response to the term 'cosmic web' - often used by scientists when they are talking about the structure of the Universe. Computer generated 3D simulations of the Universe created by leading astrophysicists around the world bear a striking resemblance to the silken webs that Saraceno's spiders have woven and become a subtle but direct geometric analogy of the structure of the Universe.

Image credit: Courtesy the artist and Esther Schipper, Berlin. Photography © Studio Tomás Saraceno, 2017