Receipt of Delivery: Art in Space Launch '84
Receipt of Delivery is a weekly series featuring Bay Area exhibition mailers selected from the SFMOMA Research Library’s collection of artists’ ephemera.
“Through the miracle of science, the Art in Space Center has built a state-of-the-art rocket containing all the vital technology for a successful liftoff into the outer limits of our galaxy. By sending a capsule filled with microchips of ARTifacts into space, art will achieve its proper place in the space race … Other spectacular pre-launch festivities include: live music, apple pie bake-off, pyrotechnics, dancing in the streets, and a 21-gun salute followed by a mass sparkler-waving send-off.” — July 2, 1984 press release, Art in Space Center (Ginny Lloyd, Mike Mages, Aron Ranen, Sam Samore)
“We knew it was controversial and probably illegal, but we decided as a group to move forward. We devised a plan to put out posters and news to gain an audience. To get the city off of our backs if they got upset when they saw the news, we would designate a location and apply for a permit, going through the proper channels. Of course we expected a decline and arranged to send people to a construction site outside city limits.” — Ginny Lloyd, Behind the Scene
The year 2012 marked the 50th anniversary of planetary exploration, the milestone of the Mars Rover landing, and numerous exciting celestial events. It also happened to be the year for the culmination of several major, ambitious space-related art commissions and projects. Here are a few stellar moments in art, performance, and music to review as we count down to the New Year:
Trevor Paglen’s The Last Pictures (launched with EchoStar XVI on November 2o, Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan)
Scott Kildall and Nathaniel Stern’s Tweets in Space, ISEA2012, Getting of the Planet residency, New Mexico (transmitted September 20, 2012)
Nelly Ben Haydoun’s International Space Orchestra performances of Ground Control: A Space Opera, 2012 ZERO1 Biennial, San Jose, California
Katie Grinnan’s Astrology Orchestra, The Integraton, Landers, California
Reissue of Laurie Spiegel’s The Expanding Universe (Unseen Worlds). The track Kepler’s Harmony of the World has been traveling since 1977 on the Voyager 1 and 2 as part of the Golden Record
KNOWLEDGES, Mount Wilson Observatory, Los Angeles
The successful protest campaign that resulted in the cancellation of Guillermo Faivovich and Nicolás Goldberg’s plans to transport the El Chaco meteorite from Argentina to Kassel for A Guide to Campo del Cielo in dOCUMENTA (13)
Katie Paterson’s recast meteorite, Campo del Cielo, Exhibition Road Show, London
To the Moon Via the Beach, Ampitheatre Arles, France
Nancy Holt’s Avignon Locators (1972–2012), Université d’Avignon, France
Lutz Bacher’s The Celestial Handbook, Whitney Biennial 2012