Join the Williamson Gallery at the Art Center College of Design for REALSPACE, an exhibition that explores aspects of astronomy, space exploration, zoology, physics, origins of life, history, and the beauty of knowledge. “REALSPACE” refers to the world as it exists without embellishments from human mythologies, lore, and orthodoxies of belief. Objects in the exhibition explore aspects of astronomy, space exploration, zoology, physics, origins of life, history, and the beauty of knowledge.
The Williamson Gallery’s art-science series seeks to diagram the poetic and emotional dimensions of science and looks for artistic practice that engages real issues resulting from the impact of science on society, culture, and the history of ideas. The exhibition will be accompanied by an illustrated catalog.
Works in REALSPACE include: paintings from James Griffith’s Natural Selection series, rendered using tar from the La Brea Tar Pits; Rebeca Mendez’s large-scale video CircumSolar, Migration 3,2013, an Icelandic documentation of her ongoing research on the migration of Arctic Terns; Jennifer Steinkamp’s architectural projection 6EQUJ5, 2012, a reflection on the panspermia theory of life’s introduction to planet Earth; Santiago V. Lombeyda’s Expressive Maps, 2013, prints on vellum derived from mouse DNA; the artist/scientist duo Adam W. Brown and Robert Root-Bernstein’s Origins of Life: Experiment#1, 2010-2014, a re-enactment of the famous 1950s experiments of Stanley Miller and Harold Urey that mixed the primordial conditions of Earth in test tubes, which in turn produced chemical building blocks of life; and Dan Goods/David Delgado’s installation Refraction, exploring the optical science and aesthetics of light and space.
Among additional included works are a stunning group of astronomical engravings from the 1806 book Astronomy Explained Upon Sir Isaac Newton’s Principles by astronomer, instrument and globe-maker James Ferguson; excerpts from the 1925 silent movie Wunder der Schoepfung (The Wonder of Creation); and haunting imagery encircling the asteroid Vesta as seen from NASA/JPL’s orbiting Dawn spacecraft.
Tuesday through Sunday: 12 noon to 5 pm
Friday: 12 noon to 9 pm
Closed Mondays and holidays
Closed 12/22/11 thru 1/2/12
Taped Information:
626.396.2446
Admission is free
Image credits:
Top Left:
Jennifer Steinkamp
6EQUJ5, 2012
17 x 22 ft., dimensions variable
Part of the collection:
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Courtesy of the artist, ACME, Los Angeles, greengrassi, London
and Lehmann Maupin, New York
Top Right:
Dawn Spacecraft
Asteroid Vesta, 2012 (Still image from video)
Global Digital Surface Model created by
Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt
(DLR – German Aerospace Center)
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
Dan Goods
David Delgado
Refraction, 2014
Theater light, water, custom electronics
19 x 25 ft., dimensions variable.
Courtesy of the artists.
James Ferguson
Astronomy explained upon Sir Isaac Newton’s Principles, 1809
Engraving
Courtesy of The Huntington Library
Adam W. Brown
Robert Root-Bernstein
Origins of Life: Experiment #1.x, 2010
Lab beakers, gas cannisters, chemicals, electronics
72 x 120 in., dimensions variable.
Courtesy of the artists.
Rebeca Méndez
CircumSolar, Migration 3, 2013.
Single channel video with sound.
17 x 30 ft., dimensions variable.
Duration: 9 minutes. Still frame.
Sound by Drew Schnurr.
Courtesy of the artist.