For the exhibition Message from our planet at the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis, curator Jason Foumberg brought together 19 international artists who use digital media in their work. The exhibition is inspired by a time capsule included in Voyager 1, the space probe launched by NASA in 1977, containing a recording of human civilization.
Tabita Rezaire’s video work, “Sorry for Real,” (2015) follows a phone call into space from the Western world, apologizing for crimes against Africans and Afro-descendants. As a cell phone glows, the sonorous “Speak & Spell” voice apologizes for slavery, racism, Islamophobia, homophobia, and for claiming to have discovered the G-spot. phone call mock excused through chat exchange with another friend. They quote Tupac and dismiss the apology as a phone floats to self-contained existence in space.
In the video “Time Traveler ™” (2007-14) by artist Mohawk Skawennatia protagonist of the future journey to important moments in Aboriginal history such as the American–Dakota War and the Occupation of Alcatraz. Skawennati created the work as a machinima (machine cinema) using the 3D virtual world platform, second life.
Some works in the exhibition, including “Lady Gaga: Mademoiselle Caroline Rivière” (2013) by Robert Wilson, use 21st century technologies to reinterpret the history of art. In the video work with sound, the pop star is dressed like the portrait of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres from the same title, without Gaga, (1805). In Wilson’s version, birds pass behind the subject, his eyelashes flutter, and a haunting score by Michael Galasso plays quietly. Already an iconic figure herself, Gaga’s presence pierces the viewer in much the same way as the original subject of the work.
Paul Pfeiffer’s silent video shows the final minutes of heavyweight boxer Bermane Stiverne losing his world title in “Caryatide (Stiverne)” (2018). The work is captivating in the way it erases the violence from the action. The artist digitally omitted Steiverne’s opponent, leaving only an excoriating view of the boxer’s face rippling with punches. By removing the sounds of the ring and the winner himself, Pfeiffer critiques the way hypermasculinity is glorified in the sport of boxing, and in our culture more broadly. Removing the winner takes away their glory.
“White Tower” (2007) by Jenny Holzer nicely punctuates the exhibition. Hyperbolic sentences scroll with flashing lights. “Don’t control or manipulate,” writes Holzer. “Make amends. Everything must burn. It’s going to flame. The frenetic and post-apocalyptic tone of the messages situates the work in the aftermath of late capitalism, represented by the turret structure where the words scroll continuously. A message for the end of the world indeed.
Overall, the artists of Message from our planet, use various technological tools to awaken the viewer. We are not going in the right direction, many of them seem to say. Wake up and change the world before the planet is gone.
Message from our planet is on view until May 21 at the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
