SMoCA spaced out

SCOTTSDALE – The theme of space exploration and its infinite potential, as well as its historical successes and failure is the focus of “Space Is the Place” at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art beginning June 16.

The exhibit features installations, paintings, works on paper, along with sound and video works made during the past 10 years by an international group of contemporary artists.

Global attitudes toward this subject have changed radically between the time the Soviets launched their Sputnik satellite nearly 50 years ago and the explosion of American space shuttles in 1986 and 2003.

Despite recent setbacks, travel to outer space remains a powerful catalyst for contemporary artists, inspiring nostalgia and fantasy.

While these works are united by the primary theme of outer space, the open‑ended parameters of the subject also invite consideration of issues relating to the technological, environmental and sociopolitical forces affecting life on Earth.

Polish‑born artist Aleksandra Mir’s video, “First Woman on the Moon,” which was performed on a beach in the Netherlands 30 years after the first moon walk, uses the context of space exploration to comment on gender inequality problems.

A satiric spirit permeates the work of Mexican artist Damián Ortega, whose “Aterrizaje en la luna,” (Voyage to the Moon) is a galvanized metal shelter that appears to be part imaginary space capsule and part dwelling for the homeless, highlighting both the inequalities that divide and the dreams that unite affluent and developing nations.