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2022

Venusian Rover

Context

Commissioned for the 2022 exhibition "Cosmos Archaeology", Venusian Rover probes the surface of Venus through a series of 50 paintings presented as a three-screen video installation. The painted images transform scientific imaging of the surface of Venus made by Synthetic Aperture Radar from NASAs Mariner 10 and Magellan missions of 1974 and 1990.

As we travel through the painted terrain, we encounter Venus in myriad forms, as landscapes, bodies, and myths, as well as incredible, powerful female souls. The attribution of female names or mythological figures to more than 2000 sites on Venus has produced another planet that reflects our own civilisation back to us.

Video Installation

Venusian Rover was created for the major exhibition, Cosmos Archaeology: Explorations in Time and Space at EPFL Pavilions, Switzerland, in 2022-2023. In the installation, three looped videos of 8 minutes each are suspended in the pavilion.

We encounter 50 Venusian sites and their female counterparts starting on the edge of Didilia Corona, the site of the first Russian landing of the Venera-4 probe on 18 October 1967. Valleys, mountains, volcanic peaks, craters, and deep crevasses, all usually shrouded under the planet’s impenetrable atmosphere are all revealed.

Venusian Rover, installation views, 2022. Photos: Julien Gremaud.

Cosmos Projects