Martian Odyssey: I will not be sad in this world*
Nov. 10 to Dec. 2, 2007 reception Saturday Nov. 10, 2 - 5

"To find the right road out of this despair civilized man must enlarge his heart as he has enlarged his mind."
Bertrand Russell, The conquest of happiness, 1975


Martian Odyssey is an experiment in social change where children, as foreigners in their precarious digital world, try to sidestep disaster and make their own happiness through art, restorative justice (forgiveness) and friendship. I am preoccupied with disaster but also, and perhaps more importantly, with the possibility of rescue and the need for hope in a time of disaster. Why shouldn't art try to imagine this?

The works are structured loosely on the conventions of the epic, the utopian novel, the science fiction films and the video game. They explore ideas from literature, philosophy, ethical theory and modern science.

Martian Odyssey:I will not be sad in this world is the second part of a larger Martian Odyssey series, the first part was shown at Loop in 2006 It will be accompanied by an ongoing book project which will be available online.

*The subtitle is taken from a song of that name by the Armenian composer, Djivan Gasparyan.

Three images from the 2007 exhibition. Image size 20 x 78 in., digital Martian panoramas from NASA and Hubble, small characters in stone lithography, paper-cut miscellanea and 3-D glasses.