23 June - 23 July 2011
Giles Alexander
The Goldilocks Region
Catalogue Essay
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Artist CV
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The Goldilocks Region
Giles Alexander
The region in any solar system or galaxy thought to be compatible with sustaining carbon-based life is called the ‘Goldilocks Region’. Neither too close nor too far from the local heat/light/energy source, this zone is named after the children’s story of The Three Bears – and by definition is 'just right' for supporting life.
In a time of increasing ecological uncertainty, human endeavours to better understand their place in the universe appear to be underpinned by a subconscious/conscious search for new territories! Images generated by these first tentative steps outside the celestial cradle often have an ambiguity of authorship – heavenly bodies hanging in space, mind-bending distances away where no human finger can release the camera shutter.
Set against the potential of this exploration, these works draw on religious and historical iconography to present a literal relationship between what has provided definition to us in the past, the present, and to what lies ahead. Dislocated, set adrift in a celestial landscape, these icons of humanity – themselves a stand in for ‘civilisation’ – suggest an uncertainty, as homeless and adrift as their creators.
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