Rebecca Cummins (Seattle, WA) www.rebeccacummins.com


Rebecca Cummins (Seattle, WA), Solstice Lunch with Lee, Tate Modern, London: A recording of shadows recorded intermittently over lunch (noon – 1:30 pm), December 22, 2003, Archival Inkjet Print, 16 x 22 inches, Courtesy of the artist



Rebecca Cummins (Seattle, WA), Er Grottino, Campo de Fiori, Rome, Italy:  A recording of shadows every 15 minutes over lunch (noon – 1:30 pm), December 3, 2003, Archival Inkjet Print, 16 x 22 inches, Courtesy of the artist





Rebecca Cummins (Seattle, WA), Happy Hour at Pike Place Market, Seattle, WA: A recording of shadows every 10 minutes over drinks (3:15 – 3:55pm), January 20, 2004, Archival Inkjet Print, 22 x 16 inches, Courtesy of the artist





Rebecca Cummins (Seattle, WA), Radio Tower, Berlin:  A recording of shadows every 10 minutes over coffee (4:16 – 5:16 pm), August 13, 2004, Archival Inkjet Print, 16 x 22 inches, Courtesy of the artist





Rebecca Cummins (Seattle, WA), Betty at Ray's Boathouse, Seattle, WA: A recording of shadows every 20 minutes over lunch (noon - 1:15pm), December 26, 2003, Archival Inkjet Print, 22 x 16 inches, Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement

I explore the sculptural, experiential, and sometimes humorous possibilities of light and natural phenomena, often referencing the history of optics. Frequently, obsolete technologies are utilized; installations have incorporated a machine for making rainbows, a camera obscura/fiber-optic journey through the center of the earth, paranoid dinner-table devices, an interactive computer/video rifle that referenced E. J. Marey's photographic rifle of 1882, camera obscuras, and a periscope birdbath.

I have also made several Sun and Moon dials. They aren't always designed to measure the exact time, but to stimulate a greater awareness of how the Earth's movements affect daily and seasonal light and shadow occurrences quite specific to the moment and to geographical location. Numerous photographic projects also record time through the movement of shadows (often my own) over regular intervals in a variety of locations.

Here, in Café Gnomonics , I bring my own tablecloth and trace shadows over coffee or conversation. Gnomonics is the art or science of constructing sundials; the gnomon is the shadow caster by which time is indicated. In my world travels, I have recorded shadows over lunch in range of locations and instances—from lunch in Rome, London, Sichuan, and Sydney; to coffee in Berlin and Hong Kong; as well as brunch in Shanghai and drinks in Seattle.