“Microcosmos Stephansdom” is part of Sabine Maier’s long-term project, developed since 2011. For this work, dust samples and particles were collected from the deepest point of the catacombs to the roof of St. Stephen’s Cathedral and preserved as glass slides through an analog photographic process. The installation brings two forms of the same material into dialogue: original glass slides projected with historic Kodak carousel projectors, and large-format pigment prints as luminous objects. Microscopic particles become monumental image spaces, evoking landscapes or the cosmos without depicting them. Light, chemistry, materiality, chance and time shape the analog images. Photography becomes a translation of matter and memory.
About the artist:
Sabine Maier is a photo and media artist working across photography, installation and public art. Her practice explores perception, memory and the materiality of images, with light as a central element. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Leopold Museum Vienna, Kunsthaus Graz and Hammer Museum Los Angeles.