Exhibition searches for meaning at the limits of science and perception
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Monday, October 14, 2024


Exhibition searches for meaning at the limits of science and perception
Dario Robleto, "The Computer of Jupiter," 2019. Various cut and polished seashells, urchin spines, cut and quilled paper, squilla claws, colored powder pigments, colored plastic beads, acrylic domes, brass rod, colored and mirrored Plexiglas, glue, acrylic on wood. 48" x 19" x 19" overall with base and vitrine. Image courtesy of the artist.



EVANSTON, ILL.- American artist Dario Robleto (b. 1972) believes artists and scientists share a common aspiration: to increase the sensitivity of their observations.

From understanding the human body’s pulses and brainwaves to viewing the faintest glimmers of light from the edge of the observable universe, groundbreaking science pushes the limits of perception. Similarly, the perceptive work of artists can extend the boundaries of empathy and understanding.

Since 2018, Robleto served as an artist-at-large at the McCormick School of Engineering. This unique program partnership between The Block Museum and McCormick gave the artist an open “hall pass” to learn from, collaborate with and question scientists, engineers and experts from across the University.

Robleto's five-year residency concludes with the exhibition “The Heart’s Knowledge: Science and Empathy in the Art of Dario Robleto.” Co-presented by The Block Museum and McCormick, the exhibition is on view from Jan. 27 to July 9 at The Block Museum, 40 Arts Circle Drive on Northwestern’s Evanston campus.

A free opening conversation with the artist will take place at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 4, in Norris University Center’s McCormick Auditorium, 1999 Campus Drive in Evanston.

The Heart’s Knowledge

Throughout the history of scientific invention, instruments like the cardiograph and the telescope have extended the reach of perception from the tiniest stirrings of the human body to the farthest reaches of space.

Robleto’s prints, sculptures and video and sound installations contemplate the emotional significance of these technologies, bringing viewers closer to the latent traces of life buried in the scientific record.

“The Heart’s Knowledge” represents a decade of Robleto’s creative practice, from 2012 to 2022, a period marked by a deepening engagement with science, including astronomy, synthetic biology and exobiology, and a widening embrace of new materials and creative forms, from 3D-printed objects to film.

Robleto dedicates the exhibition to Ann Druyan, the creative director of NASA’s Golden Record for the Voyager 1 and 2 projects. The record includes Druyan’s brainwaves and heartbeats, recorded as she reflected on her secret love for famed astronomer and future husband Carl Sagan. The act of sneaking “love on board the Voyager” inspired Robleto to compose a love letter to the only human whose “heart has left the solar system.”




Robleto sees Druyan’s act to include her emotions on the record as the central inspiration of his work. “I consider it the greatest work of subversive, avant-garde art not yet given its due,” Robleto said. “The Golden Record and Ann’s radical act brought us all together to think about what it means to be human — to one another and to unknown beings on other worlds.”

The exhibition organizes the artist’s conceptually ambitious, elegantly wrought artworks as a series of multisensory encounters between art and science. Each asks viewers to seek out the material traces of life in scales ranging from the intimate to the universal, and to question: Does empathy extend beyond the boundaries of time and space?

“Whether he’s addressing the most minute phenomena of the body or the horizons of the known universe, Robleto binds the rigor of scientific inquiry with artistic expression,” said exhibition curator Michael Metzger, The Block’s Pick-Laudati Curator of Media Arts.

“Straining at the bounds of observation, Robleto discovers unity at the limits; the common endeavor of art and science to achieve a form of knowledge that language alone cannot speak,” Metzger said.

The exhibition includes three sections:

“Heartbeats”

Rooted in the artist’s longstanding fascination with the clinical and cultural history of the human heart, “Heartbeats” draws inspiration from 19th-century pioneers of cardiography, whose instruments graphically measured heart activity for the first time, leaving behind poignant records of human subjectivity. In “The First Time, the Heart (A Portrait of Life 1854-1913)” (2017), Robleto transforms early measurements of heartbeats into photolithographs executed on paper hand-sooted with candle flames. For the installation “The Pulse Armed with a Pen (An Unknown History of the Human Heartbeat)” (2014), Robleto collaborated with sound historian Patrick Feaster to digitally resurrect these heartbeats in audio form, giving visitors access to intimate pulses of life recorded before the invention of sound playback.

“Wavelengths”

Robleto has recently embraced digital video to create works that narrate transformational episodes in the recording and study of wave phenomena. “Wavelengths” comprises two hour-long immersive video installations. “The Boundary of Life is Quietly Crossed” (2019) is inspired by NASA’s Voyager Golden Record, a gold-plated phonographic disc launched into space onboard the Voyager I and II space probes in 1977. In “The Aorta of an Archivist” (2020-2021), Robleto investigates three breakthroughs in the history of recording: the first recording of a choral performance made with an Edison wax cylinder, the first heartbeat captured while listening to music and the first effort to transcribe the brain wave activity of a dreaming subject.

“Horizons”

In the final section, “Horizons,” Robleto evokes the spirit of the Hubble telescope and the search for extraterrestrial life, gazing out at the boundaries of the observable universe. Inspired by his time as an artist-in-residence at the SETI Institute (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) and as artistic consultant to the Breakthrough Initiatives, his intricate sculptures, such as “Small Crafts on Sisyphean Seas” (2018), give shape to the speculative search for intelligent life in the universe. Other works like “The Computer of Jupiter” (2019) are framed as “gifts for extraterrestrials” offering an alternative view of the best way to begin a dialogue with alien intelligences.










Today's News

January 28, 2023

Mammoth tusks in the East River? How Joe Rogan started a 'bone rush.'

Gagosian to presents new works by Adam McEwen in London

Hauser & Wirth Zurich exhibits both painting and sculpture by Berlinde De Bruyckere

Sotheby's to offer the collection of renowned interior designer & collector Jacques Garcia

An artist who blends secular and sacred (with sequins)

Phillips appoints Lauren Peterson as Regional Director, Chicago-Midwest

Ben Brown Fine Arts open their third solo exhibition of artist Awol Erizku

Exhibition searches for meaning at the limits of science and perception

New-York Historical Society reveals the extraordinary story of a Black artisan in post-revolutionary New York

New York Public Library acquires Joan Didion's papers

Personal telephone and address book, and other memorabilia owned by Elvis Presley to be auctioned today

UNESCO moves to protect Odesa, designating the city a World Heritage Site

Forgotten history of Chinese railroad workers rises from Texas dust

Yuja Wang, daredevil pianist, takes on a musical Everest

For a Pioneering Artist, the Joy of Having Done the Work His Way

In Chicago, 'opera can be hip-hop, and hip-hop can be opera'

'Without You' review: Anthony Rapp's seasons of love, and loss

At Rennie Harris' hip-hop university, teaching the teachers

'Luzene Hill: Revelate'opens at the Asheville Art Museum

UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive mounts survey of rarely seen paintings by Frank Moore

George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, John Quincy Adams & Thomas Jefferson, Fine Autographs and Artifacts for auction

University Museum of Contemporary Art Director Loretta Yarlow to retire after 18 years

Graham Budd Auctions to sell single owner collection of football ephemera & programmes spanning 120 years

François Ghebaly opens an exhibition of works by Gabriel Madan

DIY House Painting: 7 Supplies You Need

How did video games get into the Museum of Modern Art?

How Hiring a Photographer in Dubai Can Be The Best Decision You Ever Made?

Party Kingdom - Best Bang For Your Buck




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys
Holistic Dentist
Abogado de accidentes

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful