Elsa Salonen: We Are All Made of Stardust

Completion year: 2017

Technique: stone and iron meteorite dust on glass

Size: muuttuvat mitat

Stone and iron meteorites were finely crushed into dusts. From stone meteorites, achondrites and chondrites, an ocher brownish dust was crushed, whereas from iron meteorites, pallasites and mesosiderites, a dark gray dust was crushed. With the meteorite dusts the artist painted various animal, plant, and human figures from 17th-century star atlas illustrations of constellations on glass.

Almost all of the elements of living organisms are known to have originated from ancient, dead stars. According to the best scientific estimate, our atoms will also, in the distant future, return to space and possibly form new stars.

Artist's page