Orla Linehan-Fox is an interdisciplinary practitioner who focuses on the fluctuating space between astronomy, art and alchemy, and the role of the Observer. Emanating from the limitation of two-dimensional images, especially those picked up by telescopes and satellites, Orla endeavours to represent astrophysical phenomena in sculptural form, facilitating interaction and active observation. Orla’s material encounter with the sculptural medium is intrinsic to her practice, often documenting her process, she considers herself a collaborator with the material: working intuitively with its transformation.
Previously working with Astrophysicists at Goonhilly Earth Station (Helston, Cornwall), Orla’s First Light (2023) remains on show in the Goonhilly Control Tower. The sculpture works to represent the radio waves picked up by the satellites, including those from Cosmic Background Radiation (the afterglow of the Big Bang).

Project: Creation through Destruction – Supernovae: Seeds of Light

Working with astrophysicists at the Astrophysics Research Institute (ARI), ‘Creation through Destruction (2026) is the culmination of a year-long research project by Orla Linehan-Fox on the representation of astrophysics phenomena, particularly supernova – a phenomenon that occurs in the final stages of a star's life. As the star's mass exceeds its energy output, it collapses in on itself resulting in a cataclysmic explosion that scatters newly formed elements across the cosmos. In essence: fertilising the universe. Forged in the heart of a supernova, copper is an inherited material of celestial origins, this sculpture embodies our intrinsic connection with the cosmos. Utilising fumage, oxidisation and bashing – transforming the material through destructive means – Creation through Destruction embodies the role of Alchemy in conjunction with Astronomical Observation, replicating the cosmos on a comparatively quantum scale through chemistry and physics: "What is Above corresponds to that which is Below" The Emerald Tablet (trans. 12th Century). Only through replicating the cosmos, can we truly understand it.