Installation with 11 minute soundtrack on headphones and 8 minute looping video.
Exhibition text:
A science-fiction fan visits the hometown of his mother in 1976, accompanied by his wife and new baby. At the same time, the NASA Viking lander is sending the first images back to Earth from the surface of another planet. Using the father’s travel journal as a guide, and re-contextualizing archival footage and photographs, this installation explores our yearning to bridge the gap: the gap between parents and children, between points in space and between the present and the past.
Tess Martin
1976: Search for Life (2022)
HD video in custom TV cabinet, 8’, papier mache rocks and rock stools, audio on headphones, 11’
TV cabinet constructed by Maurik Stomps; voice-over text written by Stephen Martin, read by Tess Martin, used by permission. This project contains copyright-free archival footage and audio from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This project has been supported by Stichting Droom en Daad and Stimuleringsfonds Creative Industrie.
A work-in-progress version of this installation was funded by Stichting Droom en Daad and the Stimuleringsfonds. The final version was presented at Workshop Gallery in Rotterdam in September 2022 and at the Murf/Murw Art and Performance Festival, Tilburg, the Netherlands in September 2024.
The final image is ‘1976: Touchdown’ a version of the installation made for De Aanschouw, a long-running art display in Rotterdam. It features two superimposed photographs, a Mars set and a model 1976 Morris Marina car. It was shown in January 2024.