‘Beyond Tomorrow!’ exhibit imagines humanity’s future
SOUTH BEND — It’s comforting to know that some things never change. Ask artists to present their visions of the future, and it seems that many of them focus on the same anxieties and fascinations that have characterized ruminations on the world of tomorrow for the past half-century.
That’s the impression you get from “Beyond Tomorrow!” a light-hearted new exhibition at the South Bend Regional Museum of Art that steps toward the science fiction of the past in its attempt to look toward the future.
The show is more about poking fun at the vocabulary of science fiction than it is about making predictions. The stage is set by Nelson Henrick’s video installation, a series of bizarre clips that play on a large screen at one end of the gallery; the shorts are weird enough on their own, but their booming electronic soundtrack fills the space, providing an eerie backdrop as one views the other works.
In another corner are the odd objects created by John Roth. Scale models of strange, huge vehicles — boatlike things in the shape of a human leg or a rubber duck, both covered in metallic scales; a Flash Gordon-style airship; a giant many-wheeled land vehicle spewing clouds of smoke and bathed in scary green light — are all beautifully displayed in museum cases, as if these were examples of long-ago technology rather than a possibility for the future.
Brett Borland takes his inspiration from comic books for his posters, as with “True Love Always,” one of the works featured in “Beyond Tomorrow!” at the South Bend Regional Museum of Art.
Brett Borland takes his inspiration from comic books for his posters, as with “True Love Always,” one of the works featured in “Beyond Tomorrow!” at the South Bend Regional Museum of Art.
Satre Stuelke’s “KarizMatic” (olive model) is one of his three concept machines on exhibit in “Beyond Tomorrow!”
[Tribune Photos/Michele Ives]
The exhibition’s center is occupied by the work of Brett Borland, whose comic- and movie poster-inspired images bear titles such as “The Man With Two Arms!” and “Crazy Teenage Outer Space Girls From Outer Space,” and the photographs of Nate Larson, fake images of UFOs hovering over cityscapes. Next to them, Todd Davis offers replicas of costumes and props from the “Star Wars” movies.
Justin Henry Miller and Deena Des Rioux take on the time-honored fear that biology and technology will one day merge. Miller’s meticulous little paintings depict weird creature-objects, while Des Rioux presents the cyber-punk take on the problem; her ink jet prints show human models who are bodily combined with computer hardware.
Satre Stuelke fills out the exhibition with his unusual concept machines; these are objects of ambiguous function designed in a sleek, postwar style with names such as “KarizMeter” and “KarizMatic.” The walls of Stuelke’s corner of the gallery are lined with computer-generated images of the machines in gaudy gold frames, while full-size models sit on the floor, clad in high-gloss enamel and sprouting television rabbit-ear antennaes, thumping and humming interactively in response to the movement of viewers.
An honest, serious look at the future of humanity would more likely be filled with visions of sprawling strip malls and urban decay than the technophobia of a 1950s sci-fi movie. An exhibit like that wouldn’t be very much fun, though, and I, personally, would prefer to spend time within the campy confines of “Beyond Tomorrow!” any day
Source: South Bend Tribune, Written By: Evan Gillespie (Tribune Correspondent)
