steve roden
transmission 11/60 (stellar regions), 2002
oil and beeswax on canvas, 66" x 66".

"transmission" was created by using a system of visual translation of john glenn's first message from space. glenn spoke of some tiny colorful images passing through his field of vision in what sounds like a psychadelic epiphany. the painting is made up of small lines in relationship to each letter of glenn's text and its placement in the alphabet.

"I am in the middle of a mass of thousands of very small particles that are brilliantly lit up like they are luminescent. They are bright yellowish green, about the size and intensity of a firefly on a real dark night. I have never seen anything like it. They look like little stars. They swirl around the capsule and go in front of the window." john glenn, november 1960






for more info on the silent world paintings, see the catalog essay by christoph cox

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