dancing with galileo

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a love affair with galileo

at first i followed your footsteps. i visited the places you haunted. i tried to imagine being in the room with you and asking how you knew what others did not and would not believe. i loved your instruments but for me, they were metaphors for connections and observations. i wanted to know you - i so loved your rebellious spirit. i danced in and out of the room with you. you led me on the journey. i never got dizzy with your spinning in the dance. the room became a cell and the journey became confused. you were not all that I had imagined. your intelligence was also your burden. your intelligence was also your flaw. you were stubborn, willful and self-absorbed. you had to show up those were not as smart. your conceit was your undoing. i still long to dance with you because now i see you more whole. you are still my hero but a human one. sometimes you step on my foot as we dance. sometimes you are weary. sometimes your ghost disappears and leaves me dancing alone....

bh 2005

i danced through these places as you looked toward the heavens. the dance was just starting...

earth revolves around the sun. the dancers revolve around the room.

you are my star finder....

conflicts over written words and observations left you to live alone.

you walked this path to die in your bed near the window. you danced me through the doorway. you ghost held me in the dance....

we twirled as though weightless beings. we moved in unison to a silent song. you were unsettled. your strength was waning....

you saw these things. you made the most lovely drawings. this began your undoing. i wanted to hear you speak. i could only hear whispers - no words were clear to me....

what you knew to be true by your observations, you would not keep quiet. you danced alone....

in rome, you awaited your call to the church to answer for your crimes against dogma. in humiliation you were made to recant your beliefs, but you never changed your mind....

you spent your last earthly days in these rooms and never gave up your beliefs. your daughter died long before you leaving you with few to share your ideas. you were old and blind and sick...

gallery installation is a book that you walk through, watching me dance with galileo projected on a scrim in the center of the gallery. music by galileo's father is playing. historical panels are used with the permission of Dava Sobel, from Galileo's Daughter.

gallery installation is a book that you walk through, watching me dance with galileo projected on a scrim in the center of the gallery and video of the walk to his deathbed. music by galileo's father is playing. historical panels are used with the permission of Dava Sobel, from Galileo's Daughter.

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