A video installation by musician Warwick Blair and astronomer and video artist Paul Moss. Stars is inspired by the Indian concept anoraniyan mahatomahiyan which proposes an intertwined relationship between the cosmos and the human body.

Stars is a meditative/ambient work for Indian female singer & computer backing with a view of the stars/heavens. Although sometimes performed live, this version of the project has been realised with pre-recorded video by astronomer Paul Moss.

From 5pm November 29 until December 24 Stars will play on the Film Archive's Loading Bay street screen. Each day is a 24 hour work divided into 8 sections of 3 hours each (called praharas) that correspond to the Gandharva Veda time theory (called samaya chakra) where specific qualities of music are applied to specific times of the day thus establishing a harmonious resonance and ultimately creating peace/health for the individual, society and the environment.

The work is by composer Warwick Blair and references a poem from a previous work he wrote in 1985 called Evening which refers to the Indian concept that the cosmos is in the body: anoraniyan mahatomahiyan.

I lie in a boat
In the evening stillness
Stars above me
Stars below me
And stars within me

In the late 1980s, Composer Wawick Blair was described as 'one of New Zealand's most original musical thinkers' (NZ Herald) and the 'enfant terrible of New Zealand Music' (NZ Listener). His first trip to Europe in 1987 was to perform at the Huddersfield
Contemporary Music Festival with legendary Greek polymath Iannis Xenakis. Blair has since given many concerts in the UK and Europe, including London's prestigious SouthBank Centre. In 1998 he recorded with the group Mandalay in a role that saw him working alongside Madonna/Bjork producer Guy Sigsworth.

The video images in Stars are by Astronomer Paul Moss; a multi-disciplinary artist, "currently exploring the relationship between atmospheric sky phenomena and human responses, creating movements just above and below the human threshold of perception."

Moss is also an environmentalist who has run many events in and around Wellington with music, astronomy, marine and maori star and cosmology themes. As an astronomer he runs public events for occasions such as Lunar and Solar Eclipses, International Sidewalk Astronomy Night and Astronomy Day, annually.

Blair has practised many different areas of Indian Vedic culture for approximately 20 years including: Maharishi transcendental meditation, primordial sound technique, gandharva music, ayurved, sthapathya ved, jyotish and sanskrit which he says "continue to influence my life profoundly." Many of his past works have used Indian texts both in original sanskrit and English translations.

About Stars Blair says "I've always had in mind to write a work that expresses my interest in Vedic culture, generative systems and health."