The Seduction of Galileo Galilei was an action that consisted of building a tower of automotive tires as high as possible until it toppled over, only to start over again. Several attempts were made over the course of the day on Saturday 11 June 2011 at Goodwood Kartways, Stouffville, Ontario, situated 40 km northeast of Toronto.

Mir is interested in the specific dynamics of popular myths and technologies, and she has proposed a directive for her work inspired by Galileo Galilei whose experiments with gravity are well known. As the apocryphal tale goes, Galileo dropped objects of differing mass off the Leaning Tower of Pisa in order to observe their rate of acceleration. In so doing, he discredited Aristotle's assumptions on the matter, giving us the Law of Falling Bodies. In The Seduction of Galileo Galilei, Mir ignites an intellectual affair with the scientist, four centuries after the fact. Her proposed rendezvous takes place in a gravel lot adjacent to a racetrack, where she performs a gravitational feat of her own—the stacking of a single column of automotive tires that rise precariously to the heavens. Though the column may reach the height of the famed Tower of Pisa, Mir is more concerned with space of play that opens when failure is a permissible outcome. This impetus represents an inversion of the normal parameters and aims of construction. Though Mir relies on the highly skilled labour of the crane operator—his theoretical knowledge of physics combined with in-the-field experience of hoisting objects into space—her thrill is the tipping point between the expected results and the limits of control. For example, wind, the shape of the tires, the energy of the crew to gather the tires, all these determine at what point the construction will spill over. The impulse to stack is a primordial one, visible in the play of children handling building blocks, but also the most elaborate ancient architectural wonders. Mir’s experiment is experiment for experiment’s sake and, in The Seduction of Galileo Galilei, she indulges the delight of failure, making the tower topple over and over again, for the sheer joy of watching the fall.

Sarah Robayo Sheridan, Director, Mercer Union.

WATCH the Video

READ the full Press Release from Mercer Union, June 2011
DOWNLOAD the Mercer Union Exhibition Brochure

READ the full Press Release from The Whitney Museum, Oct 2011
DOWNLOAD the Whitney Museum Exhibition Brochure