About 50 King's High School year 10 art pupils gathered on the school's rugby field yesterday to assume an exaggerated walking pose for one minute, while they contemplated the fact we are all standing on a planet which is moving at 1800km per minute, relative to the sun.
The performance, called Walk the Solar System, was created by Australian National University performance artist and Emeritus Fellow John Reid.
''We are all travelling through space as we stand here now, relative to the sun, at 1800km per minute.
''So the Solar System Walk is sort of a form of active contemplation - we contemplate the fact that we're moving through the solar system at this speed.
''We're asking everyone to contemplate that for one solid minute, during which time they will have walked 1800km relative to the sun.''
Following the performance, Mr Reid said the Solar Walkers ''returned to Earth'' as confirmed ''solurban citizens'' who were appreciative of the vastness of the universe, the real estate value of our planet and of the responsibility to manage the property on behalf of all tenants.
''It's a meditative piece on the responsibility we have to look after our planet.
''And when you see it in a universal perspective, you realise that it's pretty precious, because there's not much other real estate out there that we can live on.''
The event was documented by artist photographer Marzena Wasikowska, who will produce a mural-sized print for exhibition at the Art and Future Symposium, at the Dunedin School of Art, next month.
