Chris Fraser is an artist and educator living and working in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. He constructs environments modeled on historical image-making technologies, from the camera obscura to the magic lantern.

Asterisms was inspired by the Renaissance practice of retrofitting large cathedrals with pinholes, effectively transforming sacred spaces into gigantic solar observatories and reliable timekeepers.

The installation calls attention to the specific transit of the sun over Bozeman, MT, through the creation of a large, multi-pinhole camera obscura designed for the site and season. Visitors watch the sun pass overhead by looking at the patterned projection of disks covering the floor, walls, and themselves. The projection resembles a star chart. But rather than looking up into the night sky at a multitude of stars, visitors look down at an image of one star, our sun, repeated several thousand times.

Asterisms, a temporal artwork, continues to exist at Tinworks @ N Ida. It will remain a dynamic installation, constantly changing through each day, season, and storm.