Bettina Forget | Catalogue | Somnium Series

BETTINA FORGET

catalogueSOMNIUM SERIES

Bettina Forget‘s work is based on ideas rather than on a specific visual styles or medium. Much of her work focuses on astronomy, inspired by her avid engagement with amateur astronomy. Examples of her astro-nomically themed works are her current Somnium Project, a series of prints and paintings based on Johannes Kepler’s text “Somnium, The Dream,” the first ever science fiction book written about 400 years ago. For her installation The Naked Eye Bettina painted large-scale, heavily textured, accurate star maps and created an immersive environment reminiscent of a warm summer night by including lawn chairs, a sound track of frogs and crickets, dimmed lights, and flashlights. Visitors to the exhibition were provided with paper star charts and encouraged to explore the (painted) night sky.

Other astronomically themed projects include the We Are Stardust Series, which explores Carl Sagan’s famous quote “We are all made of star stuff,” and the Moon Series, which illustrates the many moons of the planets of the solar system.

Bettina’s work is playful, didactic, and immersive, and aims to create a connection between the viewer and the cosmos.

Bettina Forget is a visual artist living and working in Montreal, Quebec. Born in Germany, she has studied at Central St-Martins School of Art in London, England and at Curtin University in Perth, Australia and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore. She has exhibited in the USA, Canada, Germany, Iceland, Singapore, and Nicaragua. Forget is the director of Visual Voice Art Gallery, Visual Voice Lab, and VisualVoiceCollections.com. She also produces and edits online art magazine The Belgo Report.

Somnium Series

Who wrote the first fiction book? Is it Isaac Asimov? H. G. Wells? Jules Verne? Actually, the first ever

science fiction book is titled Somnium and was written 400 years ago by the German astronomer Johannes Kepler. It describes a fantastic voyage

to the Moon, its inhabitants, its landscape, and the Solar System’s celestial motion. This book has never been illustrated – until now.

Bettina Forget has created a series of prints and paintings based on this book.

Somnium MultiprintsThe “multiprints” were created by printing several images on top of each

other onto the same sheet of paper. This process invites randomness and accident, as well as a dream-like layering of images. The composition is

pulled together by the artist with an application of acrylic paints and inks, blocking out parts of the composition and enhancing others.

Somnium PaintingsThe multilayered prints served as a starting point for a series of large-scale

paintings, featuring major plot points and personnages of the Somnium story. The artist employed traditional painting techniques, drawing,

stenciling and stamping and calligraphy to communicate her narrative.

Somnium - Mount Hekla2010

digital multiprint, acrylic, and ink on paper8.5” x 8.5”CAN$ 300

Somnium - Iceland2010


Somnium - The Sea Voyage 12010


Somnium - The Sea Voyage 22010


Somnium - Tycho Brahe 12010


Somnium - Summoning the Spirit 12010


Somnium - Summoning the Spirit 22010


Somnium - Moonshot2010


Somnium - Eclipse2010


Somnium - Moonfish2010


Somnium - Oceans of Levania2010


Somnium - Tycho Brahe2011

acrylic on canvas48” x 48”

CAN$ 1,600

For enquiries please contactBettina Forget

[email protected]

Bettina Forget | Catalogue | Somnium Series

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