31” x 23” x 3”
Homemade paper (pulp made from soldiers’ letters home from various wars, ink retrieved from letters, cotton); thread from soldiers’ uniforms from various wars; colored paper, carved bone buttons, needles, cartes de visite, ribbon, colored pencil, pen, foam core
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.