51 7/16″ x 39 1/4″ x 3 1/2″
Cut paper, various cut and polished seashells, urchin spines, green tusks, squilla claws, mushroom coral, colored powder pigments and beads, colored crushed glass and wire, plastic domes, prints on paper, colored and mirrored Plexiglas, foam core, glue, frame
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.