A field of dried grass appears to sway in the breeze, bending in a wind that’s blowing all the way from another planet.
The artwork Tele-present wind by US artist David Bowen represents the wind on Mars here on earth, using data collected by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover.
Each stem of grass is connected to a mechanical device that tilts in response to the Mars data, so gallery-goers can contemplate what life on the red planet might really be like.
“There’s a lot of thought about what it might be like to live on another world, and the mystery of what’s happening over there,” he said.
The artwork is on show in a new exhibition titled EMERGENCE[Y] at the University of Melbourne’s Science Gallery, which asks visitors to think about survival and adaptation during an era of planetary transformation on earth.
“EMERGENCE[Y] encourages us to confront the pressing realities of our time in an increasingly turbulent world,” gallery director Dr Ryan Jefferies said.
Also on display is a new artwork by leading Australian artist Patricia Piccinini titled Celulas Madre, created through a year-long commission with Science Gallery Melbourne.
It’s shown alongside her seminal early work Still Life With Stem Cells, which depicts a young girl communing with strange creatures that are perhaps the result of biotechnology.
The sculptural installation was first created 25 years ago, and the new artwork Celulas Madre shows the young girl grown into a woman cradling a baby and seated by an amorphous plant-like object shaped by contemporary stem cell research.
Nearby, a post-apocalyptic scene titled Tuengel has been constructed from e-waste, with a video element depicting an AI-generated wasteland of electronics, by Chinese artist and academic Dr Wang Zhigang.
Artist Alia Parker looks at the catastrophic fire events caused by climate change by creating fire-resistant garments with textile waste and mushroom mycelium.
From the interplanetary to the microscopic, the 17 artworks on display ask profound questions about how humans might respond to ecological, social, and technological challenges.
“The real feeling that we want people to come out of this show with is hope that there’s possibility and they have agency for change,” curator Tilly Boleyn said.
One hopeful installation is a vertical hydroponic farm created by urban farm company Greenspace which is growing a range of edible greens using minimal resources.
The harvest will be supplied to local businesses, and gallery-goers can take the leaves home and make a salad to eat as they think about life on Mars.
EMERGENCE[Y] runs from Saturday until December 5.
