Medium Median explores the creative process undertaken by Berlin-based artist Alicja Kwade to create a new installation for the Whitechapel Gallery, which was exhibited between September 2016 and June 2017. The work explores mankind’s relationship with nature and time, incorporating a 21st-century astrolabe within the gallery.
Our publication aims to appear as a solid void in space: bound in deep black paper, printed with white ink for a slight translucency, and with black edging all around. Inside, the book block is Swiss bound to give the publication a document-like feeling. The content is split into two halves: the first documents the exhibition itself, with installation photography and accompanying texts and essays; the second half explores similar themes within previously created works by Kwade. This division is marked by a change of both paper stock and typeface – from uncoated to coated, and from serif to sans serif cuts of the same typeface, Messina Serif by Luzi Type.
An astrolabe is a device used to measure or determine the position of a celestial body; used from the time of the Ancient Greeks until the Renaissance, they would go on to influence the development of astronomical clocks. The word astrolabe is of Greek origin and translates as ‘star-taker’.
