Disasters in Space. Woodblock on paper. 15″ x 15″. 2010.
Frans Masereel Center Artist Residency.

In the Disasters in Space series, simple, toy-like forms of astronauts and rocket ships are combined with dire themes of warfare and technology gone wrong. Together, they allude to the fantastic nature of NASA’s military and scientific endeavors. These works are inspired by the imagined scenarios and historic bouts of paranoia that drove such machines and weaponry to be created: for instance, Cold War-era fears of the moon being used as a military base, or Star Wars Program lasers imagined as a plausible means of shooting down ICBMs from space.

The works each combine 2-D and 3-D pieces into diptychs. The different dimensions are used specifically: The 2-D works convey serene scenes of space exploration, and the 3-D works show their disastrous aftermaths. Disasters in Space 2.1: Life on Mars depicts the Mars Rover floating gently downwards, suspended by its parachute. Pink hues, combined with softly embossed, swooping lines within the parachute create a calm scene of a spacecraft making a gentle landing. Disasters in Space 2.2: Life on Mars shows the Mars Rover folded up in to a 3-dimensional crash site, the parachute now a tangled mess, shot down by arrows. As suggested by the title, Life on Mars, someone is already there on the planet, waiting for us. To make matters more complex, this someone is still using arrows for defense. The use of this weaponry refers to historic first encounters between disparate cultures, American Space Westerns, and the military background of American space exploration and discovery.

Disasters in Space 1.1: Deep Space Network portrays an astronaut floating in space, tethered to a moon-like space station. Calm blues, thick, downward strokes, and simple marks make the astronaut seem at ease. In Disasters in Space 1.2: Deep Space Network, the moon shape has been folded into a satellite dish, now spewing the astronaut onto the ground from its antenna. The astronaut, now a flat, cut-out shape, appears lifeless and inert on the ground. This work references another depiction of American space exploration: the Star Trek series, and the phrase “Beam Me Up, Scotty.” In this work, the Deep Space Network (an actual network used for interstellar communication) is being used as a teleportation device, and has gone horribly wrong in its sending and receiving.

Both works use a rough, simple cutting technique, emphasizing the low-tech nature of woodblock carving. In many of my works, I use this type of mark-making as a contrast to the high-tech nature of the subject matter. In the Disasters in Space series, I am considering our fascination with the power and complexity of these machines. By contrast, the images are executed in a very simple, unsophisticated manner. The Mars Rover  is pared down to simple shapes, and appears toy-like and tossed together; the astronaut is pudgy, and his equipment consists only of a backpack and a breathing tube. I use this simple and straightforward technique as a subtext to the work; the mode of execution questions the usefulness and practicality of these technologies and their applications, and the reality of the situations that brought them into existence.