These immersive, glow-in-the-dark murals are for indoor stargazing (Video)

These immersive, glow-in-the-dark murals are for indoor stargazing (Video)

Many of us find wonder and awe in staring up at the twinkling depths of a clear night sky. But it's getting harder; light pollution is rampant in many regions, prompting some towns to deliberately dim their lights, while other places are offering dark sky tourism.

But perhaps one doesn't have to trek out so far to drink in the starry skies. Hungarian artist Bogi Fabian creates these stunning, immersive rooms decked out in stellar scenes, using what she calls a "multiluminous" process, combining traditional painting techniques with glow-in-the-dark and UV paints. The resulting multilayered environments look completely different when the lights are on or off, or when an ultraviolet light source ("black light") is used. Fabian explains:

I am trying to create dreamy atmospheres, paint walls and floors and manage to enlighten my art with and without a source of energy. Thus, the spectator can experience the result in the daylight as well as in the dark, and in that way enjoy it in all its facets. My goal is to create unique spaces and rooms giving them an identity and a soul, where relaxing and living become an experience.

© Bogi Fabian
© Bogi Fabian

Since her childhood, Fabian has had a tendency to artistically change her environments, since she had to move around a lot. Fabian began experimenting with UV paints back in 2007, and now Fabian's goal is to "elevate" the medium of UV and other photosensitive paints:

When ultraviolet went mainstream, it quickly turned into a cheap commercial stunt, a gimmick to be used in discos and clubs as an effect among many other lighting technologies. Science, however, has been using the ultraviolet technique in many areas of our lives we would not imagine, but they were not meant to be spectacular by any means. [..]

My mission with using ultraviolet and photoluminescent or glow in the dark techniques in my art pieces is to elevate those fantastic and largely unused colors back into where they should belong: something that we can enjoy, something that opens up our perception to the world surrounding us.

© Bogi Fabian
© Bogi Fabian
© Bogi Fabian
© Bogi Fabian
© Bogi Fabian

On average, one of Fabian's murals can take anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks, though some only require a few days, while other some piece will take months to complete, depending on the scale and nature of the project. She's done interesting commissions like an immersive, star-painted geodesic dome for the library of the world's northernmost settlement, Svalbard Longyearbyen.

© Bogi Fabian
© Bogi Fabian

Fabian also creates prints, using a printing process that she invented herself: "The technology didn’t exist until I invented it," she says. "I received a huge amount of request worldwide to do smaller murals so I made it to my goal to print. It took me 3 years to develop the production-line and finish the first collection. The prints are very detailed since the first step is to draw them digitally. Each one is controlled under different light conditions."

© Bogi Fabian

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