Charles Jarboe

MFA Glass, 2025

The moment of totality describes the full occlusion of the sun by the moon during a total solar eclipse. During this fleeting, otherworldly moment, the day turns to night, stars emerge, the temperature drops, nature goes quiet, and the corona of the sun comes into full fiery view. This alignment of celestial bodies creates a rare instance of embodied perception that puts observers at the nexus of relationality between themselves and the bodies in the heavens. Time and space, subject and object, mind and body collapse into one in this moment. In totality. 

This installation engages with the connections between ourselves, the objects of our experience, and the time and space we inhabit. The formal qualities of the sculptural elements (“optic discs”) and the light in the space draw upon the neurophysiology of vision as well as the physical stuff we are made of at the sub-cellular as well as cosmic levels. Each disc, hovering in space, harboring and reflecting light, situates the viewer in a dynamic, complex knot of relations. The lack of fixity blurs the distinction between the mind, body, and object, and encourages the viewer to see what/when/where they are in a new way.