Otherworldly

About

Otherwordly is a group exhibition of London-based emerging artists who have worked in dialogue with the latest research in astrobiology. The study of the origins, evolution, and distribution of life in the universe, astrobiology is one of contemporary science's most rapidly developing areas of research. It explores questions such as: What is life? How does life arise from non-life? What are the essentials and contingencies of habitability and evolution? Are we alone?

Artists Hildy Biernoff and Lo Cleary imagine through painting and drawing the forms that life could take on three speculative worlds—an icy moon named Boreas; a super-Earth, Jӧtunn; and a gas giant, Vayu-Vatu. Biernoff's and Cleary's work is informed by exchanges with the exhibition curators, Birkbeck students Joshua Goodland and Matt Kimberley, who shared with the artists the latest scientific knowledge about what life could look like in extraterrestrial environments.

Multimedia artists Arlo Bailey-Evans and Crow Higgott have developed a sound piece that provides an atmosphere for these as yet unknown, but highly evocative and increasingly familiar landscapes. The works, moreover, remind us of the importance of art-science collaborations in making outer space visible and felt.

Supported by the Royal Astronomical Society, and Birkbeck, University of London.

With special thanks for the advice of Professor Roger Luckhurst and Dr. Andrew Rushby.

Please note: The gallery will be closed on 19 November 2024 between 4:30pm and 6pm.