To the moon with a piece of paper (2023)

This 3-channel performance-for-video triptych was conceived and created in collaboration with Alan Parker during a Pro Helvetia research residency at Muzeum Susch, Switzerland, in December 2022. The work draws from a creative and performative investigation into the materiality of paper, exploring its transformative potential and the fascinating interplay between the ordinary and the extraordinary.

At the heart of the piece is the theoretical concept that folding a single sheet of paper 42 times could theoretically extend its thickness far enough to reach the moon, as demonstrated by mathematical exponentials. Beginning with an ordinary office sheet approximately 0.1mm thick, each fold doubles its thickness. By the 42nd fold, the paper’s thickness would reach an astonishing 439 million metres – 439 000 kilometres – surpassing the moon’s farthest distance from Earth in its elliptical orbit (roughly 405 000 kilometres). This interplay between the mundane material of paper and its extraordinary mathematical potential invites reflections on scale, possibility and the human impulse to reimagine the ordinary. 

To access the complete triptych, please contact Gavin.

To the moon with a piece of paper was presented as a 3-channel performance-for-video triptych at Performance Studies International 2023 (Johannesburg, South Africa).  

Created, performed, photographed and filmed by Gavin Krastin and Alan Parker

Videos edited by Brad Jackson