22 1/2″ x 64″ x 13″
Homemade paper (pulp made from notes and photographs found in lockets excavated from various battlefields, soldiers’ letters home from various wars, ink retrieved from letters); excavated lockets and chains from various wars; dried flowers picked on foreign battlefields sent home by soldiers from various wars; fabric and thread from military uniforms from various wars; hair flowers braided by war widows; mourning dress fabric and lace; silk, colored paper, eternal flower, resurrection plant, passion flower and bugleweed extract, willow, linseed oil, glass
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.