Yuri Pattison, sun[set] provisioning 2019. Tate. © Yuri Pattison.
Though made nearly 200 years apart both artists reflect radiant and atmospheric sunsets
Yuri Pattison’s sun[set] provisioning digitally visualises an endlessly morphing ocean sunset, set in a structure made from the industrial steel shelving system Dexion. The images on the screen are generated in real time from data about the atmospheric conditions in this room. A ‘uRadMonitor’ monitoring system collects information about carbon dioxide, pollution particle matter (PM1/PM2.5/PM10), ozone, formaldehyde, temperature and humidity. Software then creates sunsets that allude to the phenomenon of spectacular sunsets caused by high amounts of pollution in the local atmosphere. The sunsets intensify and become more colourful as pollution levels increase. As we observe this digital response to our surroundings, Pattison invites us to question the complex relationship between how our observations and experiences of the natural world are represented.
A group of watercolours by JMW Turner surround Pattison’s installation. Painted over a period of 25 years, they show atmospheric skies. Turner devoted many pages of his sketchbooks to the visual effects of light, air, water and the accompanying natural phenomena of mist, storms and cloud. In some studies, Turner drags watercolour paint across the page as if to blur water and air. In others, the combination of fluid washes of watercolour with energetic brushstrokes creates a sense of perpetual movement and change in atmosphere. The subjects of some of the sketches are veiled in mist or dissolved in the light, giving them an ambiguous, abstract appearance.