Cosmos: Torpor

Saskia Noor van Imhoff's new installation, 'Torpor,' is part of the exhibition 'Cosmos', on view from February 14 through June 29, 2025, at the Teylers Museum in Haarlem (NL).

The museum houses thousands of objects that offer insight into the workings of the universe. To slow the effects of time, their exposure to daylight is minimized, as they are mostly stored in dark depots.

For the exhibition, Saskia Noor van Imhoff created a new installation. She selected objects from the depot that, for various reasons, receive little light, such as a series of moon photographs on delicate paper, uranium-containing stones that emit harmful radiation, the first X-ray images, and a pallasite, a meteorite as old as the sun.

The layered installation demonstrates how things are made invisible through processes of protection or concealment. Van Imhoff draws attention to what is visible, what remains hidden, and how this shapes our understanding of the world.

A new publication, including Van Imhoff's new work, has been released to accompany the exhibition and is available through the Teylers Museum.