Calling All Aliens
Calling All Aliens expands Williams's art emergency from the gallery to the entire human species. The artist proposes to signal 1.3 million planets with a handheld mirror from Waimanalo because modern insanity--fed by aggression, greed, technology, scientism, and the mantra of progress--has exceeded human capacity for repair. The press-release form makes the cosmic SOS funnier and more desperate, as if intergalactic salvation were a reasonable studio initiative. Its image of an artist flashing help signals into space is absurd, but also bleakly accurate: the modern human condition has become so deranged that only aliens might still be outside the problem. The piece is environmental, metaphysical, and comic at once, a doomsday performance disguised as public outreach.
- DATE:
- November 8, 2009
- DOCUMENT TYPE:
- Essay / Critique
- NAMED ARTISTS / FIGURES:
- LG Williams; Susan Geileen; Peter Longcord
- INSTITUTIONS / VENUES:
- The Estate of LG Williams; Honolulu Weekly; Waimanalo; Milky Way
- KEYWORDS:
- cosmic SOS from Waimanalo; 1.3 million planets signaled; modern insanity exceeding human repair; handheld mirror as intergalactic signal; aliens outside the problem; environmental metaphysical comedy; doomsday performance as public outreach