Men on Mars
2022
Digital collage and drawing on paper, styrofoam, aerosol paint, fishing line, wooden dowels, LED bulbs, mylar, rice paper and synthetic dyes.
A window glowing in pinks and reds of an imaginary Martian landscape reminiscent of the idealized American West, Men on Mars investigates how myth plays a central role in how we experience our own spaces and selves and colors our perception of others. It uses imagery of recent corporate space travel while sardonicizing themes of adventure, exploration and national exceptionalism found in mythic structures. The work pulls from ancient Chinese myth texts Shan Hai Jin and Journey to the West and hybridizes them with American mythology: historical (ex: Paul Bunyan), contemporary (ex: Captain America), and ideal (ex: The American Dream).
Men on Mars is a site-specific installation developed for BOX13’s Window Box, facing Cesar Chavez street in Houston.
Images utilized are artists’ own, as well as from Currier and Ives’ Chronicles of America, The Smithsonian image database, NASA database, The Biodiversity Heritage Library, comic books 1982-current, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and others.
Landscape Collage
Characters
