43 ½” x 36 ½” x 7”
Cut colored paper, homemade paper (pulp made from brides’ letters to soldiers from various wars, cotton); fabric and thread from soldiers’ uniforms from various wars; hair flower braided by a war widow; 19th-century baby shoes, silver-coated roses, mourning dress fabric, silk, ribbon, lace, cartes de visite, antique buttons, ink-stained poplar
In 1977, NASA launched two probes with “Golden Records” representing Earth’s life and cultures, and edited to present humanity’s “best face forward.” Ancient Beacons Long for Notice—the third video in a trilogy—explores the challenge of representing humanity through a single object. What is our moral obligation to a “full accounting” of our actions in perpetuity, off-planet, and to unknown beings?
Commissioned by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art and Santa Barbara Museum of Art.