Maurizio Cannavacciuolo
A Lecture on Martian History
on the Anne H. Fitzpatrick façade
Italian artist Maurizio Cannavacciuolo is the eighth Artist-in-Residence at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum to create a temporary site-specific work for the Museum’s façade. Drawing on his interest and experience of living and traveling through Asia, particularly India and Thailand, Cannavacciuolo explores the many ways cultural influences overlap and diverge in contemporary society. His installation, “A Lecture on Martian History,” will be on view from June 28 through Jan. 9, 2017.
His installation is a fictional narrative about the colonization of the Earth by Martians told generations later by a many-armed teacher, who is the product of human-Martian interbreeding. In the early years of the invasion, when the Martians enter the empty human houses, they discover flickering television sets. They are fascinated by the hypnotic, repetitive images, white noise and static emitted by the blank screens. The Television becomes a Martian cult object. In the façade artwork there are five vignettes, each telling a part of the story, including a scene set in a fictional performance hall at the Gardner Museum.
Cannavacciuolo’s elaborately overlapping drawings and patterns relate a science fiction story, drawing on cultural trivia, emotion, and aesthetics to deliver a witty and provocative message about life, culture, and consumption in the 21st century. His design is inspired by Edo textiles from Japan and Cuban tiles from Havana, all part of his multi-cultural vision.
Cannavacciuolo explores the many ways cultural influences overlap and diverge in contemporary society