Berman Museum Explores the Realm of Science Fiction
The exhibition runs July 2 to October 6. “Moon Party” commemorates 50th anniversary of lunar landing on July 20.
Fifty years ago this summer, man walked on the moon.
To commemorate that momentous event, the Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art presents Science Fiction from July 2 to October 6. Curated by Ginger Gregg Duggan and Judith Hoos Fox, Science Fiction features the work of 12 international artists who were all born in the 1960s and 1970s, when the line between science and fiction seemed to blur in unprecedented ways.
“This continues the Berman’s recent tradition of presenting thought-provoking exhibitions,” said Berman Museum Director Charles Stainback. “Examining science fiction through the eyes of some of the world’s most renowned contemporary artists opens up interesting questions about the world we live in.”
To help celebrate the exhibition and the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Apollo 11 lunar landing, the Berman Museum will also host a community-wide Moon Party on Saturday, July 20. The free event will include scavenger hunts and an outdoor screening of the films Trip to the Moon and Hugo while inviting the public to the museum for tours of the exhibition.
“We see this as a show that will resonate with viewers of all ages,” said curator Judith Hoos Fox. “All 12 artists were born in the 1960s and 1970s, a critical time in our country’s history when the unthinkable first started to seem possible. That’s the spirit we’ve tried to capture with Science Fiction.”
The works on view will include prints, video, immersive installations and sculpture. Brandon Vickerd’s Sputnik Returned, a stainless-steel replica of the first man-made satellite to orbit the earth, will be installed on the Berman Museum lawn as if it fell from orbit and crashed back to Earth.
From Andrew Yang’s seven-ton sand installation, in which each grain represents a star in the Milky Way, to Evan Roth’s panoply of monitors that investigate Internet “landscapes,” the works in Science Fiction will probe the ways in which science has shaped society, identity and everyday life, as well as how imagined “science fictions” manifest a stage for utopic or dystopic visions of the present and future.
Faculty and artist talks and exploratory sessions addressing fact and fantasy will also be scheduled and open to the public throughout the duration of the exhibition.