FUTURE/PAST 2/7–3/16

FUTUREPAST_web

OPENING: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7th, 7-9PM

Curated by independent curator and founder of Big Deal Arts, Ginger Shulick, FUTURE/PAST is a group exhibition featuring the work of artists Sam Burford, Don Edler, Daniela Kostova, Don Porcella, Larissa Sansour, and Josh Slater. Future/Past will present both dystopian and utopian scenarios of the past, present and future, featuring artists for whom science fiction and time travel is a prevalent theme in their work. Many of the artists in the exhibition approach the future with both a fear and enthusiasm for its technological developments, while simultaneously retaining nostalgia for the past. Several of the artists’ works directly related to science fiction as depicted in literary works and film, at times referencing existing productions or historical events in their pieces. Future/Past is both a sentimental statement on science fiction, as well as a critical comment on politics and the science fiction genre as a whole.

NYC-based artist Don Edler utilizes past artifacts to recontextualize history for new audiences. His “An Experience Unlike Any I Have Ever Known” recreates the photograph Astronaut Chalres Duke left of his family on the moon in 1972, as installed in the American Museum of Natural History. Edler questions Duke’s intentions for this act, calling it the greatest unintentional artwork ever made. His “An Artifact of our Imaginations” questions travel through space and time, and how it is depicted in popular media, as does UK artist Sam Burford’s “Star Wars Relief” series—timelapse photographs of the Star Wars films transformed into silicone surface reliefs.

For Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour and Bulgarian artist Daniela Kostova, science fiction is an ironic celebration of internationalism. Kostova’s “Cosmonaut 1001” depicts an infant in a space suit, it’s sewn-on badges suggesting affiliation with countries previously on opposite sides of the divide, Capitalist and Communist. Sansour’s “A Space Exodus” depicts parts of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey within a Middle Eastern political context. The recognizable music scores of the iconic 1968 film are changes to arabesque chords as the artist embarks on a phantasmagoric journey through the universe.

Inspired by science fiction, Don Porcella’s work references alien conspiracy theories in a humorous and wildly-imaginative way. His paintings such as “Alien Summit on Chocolate Mountain” and “We Come in Peace” are paired with his sculptures that question the alien origin of humans’ existence, while Josh Slater depicts alien architecture and landscapes in drawings, collages, and video work, thus creating universal and profound images of the unexplainable.