Born from a collaboration with the brilliant minds behind the SALT telescope, ‘Event Horizon (Spectra I)’ is a testament to the unyielding quest for understanding that drives both the artist and the astrophysicist. The experimental optical installation explores human perception and our relationship to the way information organises itself in the world. It uses defunct astronomical lenses including the main prism of the Cassegrain Spectrograph – part of the 1.9m telescope in Sutherland. In an age when the night sky is obscured by light pollution and the lightwaves of distant stars no longer reach our retinas, the artwork invites us to consider our place in the universe.

Kamil Adam Hassim is a trans-disciplinary artist and musician, expressing himself through making instruments, film, installations, digital art, sound, music, optics, performance and painting. His current projects explore how our relative cultural paradigms influence the ways in which we interface with the universe and the kinds of information that become activated through these perspectives. Hassim’s work is enriched through partnerships with scientists and engineers, notably those from the team behind the SALT telescope. He is currently an artist in residence at the South African Astronomical Observatory and is one of the recipients of Connect South Africa, with Swiss artist Ian Purnell. They joined a dual residency at CERN, and in the array of astronomy observatories across South Africa, at SAAO and SARAO.