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  • Blickfang I, photograph, 2014. © Penelope Richardson
    Blickfang I, photograph, 2014. © Penelope Richardson
  • Blickfang II, photograph, 2014. © Penelope Richardson
    Blickfang II, photograph, 2014. © Penelope Richardson
  • Blickfang III, photograph, 2014. © Penelope Richardson
    Blickfang III, photograph, 2014. © Penelope Richardson
  • Blickfang IV, photograph, 2014. © Penelope Richardson
    Blickfang IV, photograph, 2014. © Penelope Richardson
  • Blickfang V, photograph, 2014. © Penelope Richardson
    Blickfang V, photograph, 2014. © Penelope Richardson
  • Blickfang VI, photograph, 2014. © Penelope Richardson
    Blickfang VI, photograph, 2014. © Penelope Richardson
  • Blickfang VII, photograph, 2014. © Penelope Richardson
    Blickfang VII, photograph, 2014. © Penelope Richardson
Blickfang: Wishing Sticks Project 7

‘Blickfang’: a Wishing Sticks Project

Searching for the final frontier with a divining rod, hoping.

Space is like a dream where the final frontier is constantly being renegotiated. It sits strongly in our imaginations but in reality is unreachable. Blickfang, a photographic series, is my artistic response to Cliona O’Connell’s poem ‘Space’ which explores this dilema.

“It’s all just hype
and hyperbole you know:
the final frontier,
rushing away from us
at god knows how many
light years a second;
because space isn’t far,
just sixty two miles
as the hummingbird flies
and if we could drive
straight up
we’d be there in an hour.”

The divining rod symbolises the idea of searching, looking beyond what is visible and known in the everyday, hoping. It is my ‘hype’. The hyperbole is the belief in the power of the rod to provide answers. We all have wishes, desires, hopes and dreams and sometimes we need assistance to achieve them. In the same way we embrace the idea of space we may also believe in the power if the diving rod to lead us to the answer.

Blickfang series, Penelope Richardson, 2014


Das Weltall ist wie ein Nachttraum, dessen Grenzen sich ständig erweitern. In unserer Vorstellungskraft ist es immer präsent, doch zugleich unerreichbar fern, nicht greifbar. Für die meisten von uns ist es nicht möglich dorthin zu reisen. „Blickfang“ ist meine Antwort auf das Gedicht „Space“, von Cliona O’Connell.

„It’s all just hype
and hyperbole you know:
the final frontier,
rushing away from us
at god knows how many
light years a second;
because space isn’t far,
just sixty two miles
as the hummingbird flies
and if we could drive
straight up
we’d be there in an hour.“

Die Wünschelrute versinnbildlicht dabei die Suche, über das alltäglich sichtbarer hinaus, die Hoffnung. Die Wünschelrute ist mein Trick: Diese Übertreibung speist die Erkenntnis, das die Wünschelrute durch ihre Fähigkeiten eine Antwort finden könnte. Wir alle haben Wünsche, Sehnsüchte, Hoffnungen und Träume, und manchmal brauchen wir eine Hilfe, um unser Ziel zu erreichen. Genauso, wie wir die Idee das Weltalls annehmen, könnten wir auch glauben, das die Wünschelrute uns zu einer Antwort fuhrt.

Blickfang series, Penelope Richardson, 2014


Poem © Cliona O’Connell. All rights reserved by Bradshaw Books, Ireland

Images © Penelope Richardson. All rights reserved.

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I developed this symbol to represent the hand-wrought facet of being a visual artist. It is based on my own hand. My signed editions all carry a version of this logo embossed into the paper.

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