Laboratory for Other Worlds

Inspired by broader ideas put forth in recent movements concerning social and environmental justice, this immersive installation approaches the vast number of protentional outcomes of personal/political/societal choices through the analogously constructed form of a science fiction film set.

Following a methodology of surrealist automatism—a process of suppressing conscious control over the process of creating—the formation of the space and its representation display complex, structured, and peculiarly playful relationships between the intuitive and the psychological, between the human body and the subconscious. The piece intertwines hand-built structures, paintings and sculptures made from humble materials with video and audio elements in part by solar panel technology.

Composed in a muted color palette flanked with high contrast, esoteric wall paintings, the imagery suggests mappings for island-like plateaus populated with imaginative forms, lively scenarios, and shifting scale combinations of figurative and abstract elements. Emulating the stark décor/functionality of a science lab, but one existing in an unspecified time or space, Laboratory for Other Worlds posits environments, characters, and materials in a state of observation and/or in a process of formation. The format of a lab allows for the possibility of failure as well as for many things to be happening at once, and by this nature, posits a designated environment for discovery, self-assessment, and interpretation in which the viewer is prompted to form their own connections.