Josiah McElheny at the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University, Houston

'Island Universe’, an installation of five hanging sculptures by Josiah McElheny, is exhibited at the Brown Foundation Gallery at the Moody Center for the Arts.

Modelled on the Lobmeyr-designed chandeliers in New York’s Metropolitan Opera and a vivid diagram of the Big Bang, each sculpture depicts a different potential universe. The varying lengths of the rods are based on measurements of time, while the clusters of glass discs and spheres accurately represent the clustering of galaxies in the universe. Light bulbs in the sculpture mimic the brightest objects that exist, quasars. McElheny’s related film, Conceptual drawings for a chandelier, 1965 (2005) will accompany the exhibition.

In conjunction with ‘Island Universe’, Rice University’s School of Humanities has invited McElheny to deliver the prestigious Campbell Lecture Series, a three-night lecture/performance that is free and open to the public, from 20–22 March 2018.