![Observatory (Detail)](http://cdn.aaa.org.hk/w900h500/digital_collection/fedora_extracted/12612-1.tif.jpg)
Photograph of a detail of Roberto Chabet's Observatory at Finale Art Gallery. The work is one of the two-part installations exhibited simultaneously at Finale and West Gallery, SM Megamall from 4 - 16 April 2002.
In the Finale side, clipboards arranged in a grid manner covered the black plywood panels. For Chabet, neon is the modern version of the Northern Lights. In this work, a red neon walking cane, whose shape also relates to the Big Dipper, signified a journey, a blind search for the North Star somewhere across the constellation of stars, whose names are translated in Braille onto sheets of exposed photo paper attached to the clipboards. Also part of the Finale installation are four clipboards, placed inside the gallery's glass case, with various papers, and an envelope with the labels crossed out.
In the West side, a red neon arrow points to darker version or the shadow of his Boat, this time overturned, and resting on drawings of the Philippine map on black paper made by children who were not given a map to copy from but were asked to draw from memory.
Chabet wrote, 'the exhibit examines the complexities of seeing, rendered through the observer's storehouse of memories.'
Online
installation,  painting,  installation,  found object,  conceptualism,  found object
2002
Plywood, acrylic, neon, walking cane, clipboards, photo paper with Braille, cut-out paper, envelopes
Variable dimensions
artwork documentation
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Observatory (Detail)
![](http://cdn.aaa.org.hk/w900h500/digital_collection/fedora_extracted/12612-1.tif.jpg)
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