Skies Captured, 2001

During Sonsbeek 9 (2001), curator Jan Hoet wrote: “Each work has its own clarity and calm. It is what it is.” These words resonate perfectly with Skies Captured by the Finnish artist Henrietta Lehtonen (1962). From the waterfront a silver solar system made of stainless steel is visible, shining above the fairy-like so-called Cold Pond in the park.

The work displays, from left to right, the Sun followed by Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus. The planet Neptune, once part of the set, is now missing—presumably stolen—so the solar system is no longer complete. Yet it retains its poetic power.

With this work, Lehtonen confronts us with the paradox of knowledge and mystery. Astronomers have made unprecedented discoveries and mapped the workings of the universe, yet the cosmos still overwhelms us with its infinity and complexity. Skies Captured seems to capture this ambiguity: a cosmos that is at once immense and elusive, yet tangible and near. The reflective steel connects the cycles of the planets with the changing nature of the park—a frozen moment in which macro- and microcosm converge.