Photobook Launch: The Drift /// Parallax

“Imagine, if you will, that the Earth had formed around not a single star…How would we assemble our cosmological thoughts if we lived in such a system” – Caleb Scharf

The Drift/Parallax is a triptych of publications based on the stars Arcturus, Rigel, and Vega. This series uses image and text to consider constructs of masculinity and how they intersect with sexualities, queer working-class identity, and remnants of memory enlarged into cosmic scale. Hauntology, psychogeography, depression, the presence of absence in portraiture, astronomy and personal archives inform this series.

Caleb Scharf’s The Copernicus Complex: Our Cosmic Significance in a Universe of Planets and Probabilities questions what life would be like if it were in orbit of a different star. Patterns in the night and colours of light would be different to the earth’s sky. Drawing from this, the artist considers sequences of colour in his work; how they tie together emotionally, while also feeling rooted in both speculative and real place. Each of the three works has a colour, emotion and a person attached to it. Assigned colours indicate specific arrangements, logics, and orbits found in romantic relationships. Arcturus is driven by lust, Rigel by dissolution, and Vega by doubt. Coordinates of time, distance, and speed, harden an initial poetic and hypnotic sexual flow. Body parts are aligned with architectural power, bringing unseen intimacies into public associations. The artist’s intention for this work is to defy the limiting perspective of society on working-class people and to use the work to magnify personal realities.