Artist's in Contemporary Society: Week #5 - The Churchie: Sara Morawetz

How the stars stand (All sols) and (Dear NASA) is a large mixed media installation, of a performance work, created by Sara Morawetz. This performance work lasted for 37 days and primarily focuses on the theme of time as an invisible constraint. Morawetz adjusted her personal time to the solar time on Mars, which is 2.7% longer than a normal 24 hour Earth day. She allowed her life to drift completely out of sync with the world around her and documented her daily life in different ways.

The large frame on the wall consists of a series of photographs that Morawetz took everyday at 9am 'Martian time'. The layout of these photographs resembles a calendar layout and gives the viewer a clear picture of how this time adjustment affected her day-to-day schedule. In the glass case, Morawetz decided to display the ephemeral objects that she accumulated throughout this time. On each of the receipts she received, Morawetz altered the time to reflect her 'Martian time'.

Morawetz also wrote to NASA asking for advice on how to survive the emotional struggle of altering her personal timeline. She wrote these letters on a typewriter, which references the passing of time. It is also used to resemble a professional documentation of this performance as a scientific experiment. It's interesting to note that she did not include any responses to her letters.

This performance piece explores a different notion of how time passes. This work took 37 days to complete and to do this you would have to be fully committed to the outcome. It is difficult to adjust your entire schedule to a different time and Morawetz has documented her emotional struggle and the ramifications of the process during this time.