Anna Von Mertens translates data from odd avenues of knowledge on to textiles with stitching to define time intervals around low points in American history, such as the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination, and the bombing of Baghdad. Her translations are mapped out with the aid of a computer program and then hand-stitched to become celestial time-lapsed tapestries that are sized in wide-screen dimensions. Each piece accurately reproduces the rotation of the stars and planets as they would have been viewed from earth at the location and time of a particular event. Von Mertens received a United States Artists Simon Fellowship in 2010 and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Award in 2007.
Image: Anna Von Mertens, Midnight until the first sighting of land, October 12, 1492, six miles off the coast of current day San Salvador Island, Bahamas (detail), 2006, hand-stitched cotton, 41" x 97.5", courtesy of the artist and Elizabeth Leach Gallery. Photo: Don Tuttle
