Artists Imagine Life After Earth in 'Cataclysm of Binary Star Systems'
Creating otherworldly works that answer: “what happens when the world we know is no longer sustainable?”
Summary
On view through August 29 at NYC's Nunu Fine Art gallery, the show gathers emerging artists from Asia, Latin America and their diasporas, drawing from rich astronomical mythologies of both regions.
Drawing parallels between traditional Chinese astronomy and pre-Hispanic Latin American understandings of the cosmos, the show considers technology, mythology and collective memory as vessels for survival.
The exhibition ultimately asks what humanity would carry with it if forced to begin again.
What happens when the world we know is no longer sustainable? The Cataclysm of Binary Star Systems, the inaugural exhibition from the 603 Arts Foundation, takes that question beyond Earth, imagining a future where humanity is forced to abandon the familiar and search for a new beginning among the stars.
On view at Nunu Fine Art in New York, the group show gathers emerging artists from Asia, Latin America and their diasporas, drawing from rich astronomical mythologies of both regions. The premise begins with catastrophe: a smaller star slowly siphons away the sun’s atmosphere, eventually rendering Earth uninhabitable and sending its remaining survivors into the unknown. But the cosmic narrative is less about science fiction than our present moment, using interstellar travel as a metaphor for displacement, uncertainty and the possibility of starting over.
Throughout the show, organic materials and otherworldly forms blur distinctions between what feels ancient and what might belong to some distant future. Danni Huang’s Bonsai root and Tail stone combine natural ephemera with sculpted resin, resulting in alien-like objects that appear simultaneously excavated and newly formed. María-Elena Pombo’s Unweaving the Starches of Abya Yala (Starches of Anya Yala) suspends strands made from cassava starch, corn, potato and brown algae extract from a metal structure, while Rithika Merchant’s intricate embroidery depicts a surreal tree growing from two figures beneath a constellation of watchful eyes, among many others.
The exhibition ultimately asks what humanity would carry with it if forced to begin again. Drawing parallels between traditional Chinese astronomy and pre-Hispanic Latin American understandings of the cosmos, The Cataclysm of Binary Star Systems considers technology, mythology and collective memory as vessels for survival.
The show “is a portal into the fate of humankind resting on the curiosity and promise of a life beyond what we know, in spite of the fears of the unexplained and unexplored,” said the gallery in a statement. The Cataclysm of Binary Star Systems is on view at Nunu Fine Art New York through August 29.
Nunu Fine Art
381 Broome St.
New York, NY 10013
