This summer the , London, celebrates the history and ingenuity of Science Fiction across the disciplines of art, design, film and literature.ÌýBringing together an outstanding number of seminal, recent and newly commissioned pieces, Into the Unknown: A Journey through Science Fiction examines our curiosity inÌýotherworldly phenomena and looks at how artists have engaged with the genre. The historian and writer Patrick Gyger has curated a festival-style exhibition, comprised of various chapters and featuring more than 800 works. Many of this works have never been displayed in the UK prior to the show.
Beginning with Chapter 1, titled Extraordinary Journeys, Gyger invites viewers to interact withÌýa cabinet of curiosities containing original manuscripts and drawings from Jules Verne, as well as James Gurney’s Dinotopia series. Moving past a plethora of dinosaur models by Ray Harryhausen andÌýinfluential literature includingÌýFrancis Bacon’s New Atlantis and Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe,Ìýthe audience is flung into Space Odysseys. Here, art and literature tell the story of space travel. Featured works include Soda_Jerk’s video installation Astro Black, vintage postcards and adverts promoting Soviet visions of space, as well as novels by Arthur C Clarke, CS Lewis and Naomi Mitchison.
Elsewhere, Chapter 3, Brave New Worlds, highlights the dystopian worlds we have created for our futures inÌýMargaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, and theÌýarchitectural plans and designs from Ben Wheatley’s adaption ofÌýHigh Rise. Concluding with Final Frontiers, the exhibition highlights theÌýmulti-award-winning VFX company Double Negative’s installation around the android Ava, star of Ex MachinaÌýand also screensÌýSunspring, which was written entirely by an artificial intelligence bot for SciFi London’s 48-hour film challenge.
Isaac Julien joins a line-up of esteemed visual artists. HisÌýEncore II (Radioactive)Ìý(2004) will be exhibited in the Barbican foyers, whileÌýa new light, movement and sound commission by Conrad ShawcrossÌýtakes over The Pit theatre space.ÌýOther commissions include US Artist Trevor Paglen’sÌýOrbital Reflector (Diamond Variation),Ìýa prototype for an actual spacecraft that could be launched into low earth orbit; and Black Mirror, a six foot installation from the award-winning British TV series of the same name.ÌýBased on an episode from the first series,15 Million Merits,Ìýthe commissionÌýis displayed across multiple screens across the Barbican’s main entrance hall.
Meanwhile, Palestinian video artist Larissa Sansour’s film In the Future They Ate from the Finest Porcelain fuses Science Fiction, archaeology and politics to explore the role of myth in history, fact and national identity, and Invisible Cities #Part 1 #Metabolism by Pierre-Jean Giloux, reconstructs some of the architectural projects of the Japanese Metabolism movement. The summer-long exhibition features a wealth of special events, talks, workshops and screenings throughout the Centre until September.
Into the Unknown: A Journey through Science Fiction,Ìý3 June – 1 September, Barbican Centre, London.
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Credits
1. Into the Unknown, Barbican campaign 2017. Courtesy of the Barbican, London.
