Andrew Reed Gallery

Opening Reception

Saturday, October 19th, 2024
6-8 pm

Exhibition: October 19th – November 16th

Prologue: Residual Images in Italics

Rafael Domenech

Text by Natalia Zuluaga

Brian W. Aldiss’ The Appearance of Life is set on a planet several lightyears away from Earth, where humans have colonized a pre-existing structure that stretches around the planet’s equator and turned it into a museum. At this site, androids tirelessly catalog and archive the history of the galaxy, including its cultural artifacts and the spoils of colonial conquests. These androids, working ad nauseam, arrange exhibits that are digitally preserved and made available to human counterparts across the colonies for study or viewing. The objects on display range from the microscopic, such as micro-organisms, to the monumental, like battleships and plundered churches. The museum is so vast that it would take another fifteen millennia to reach its full capacity. The story is narrated by a female researcher who explains the importance of her work and the many parties invested in her findings, such as the university program asking her to sift through “galactic lumber” to prove the hypothesis that the human voice has grown quieter over millennia. Although researchers on Earth and elsewhere can review individual objects remotely, forming a “gestalt view is only possible through the presence of a physical seeker.”…