Let’s talk about it...
A new exhibition is set to open in West Cork this weekend.
The opening event at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre, a gallery conversation between the artist George Bolster and Seán Kissane, Curator of Exhibitions at IMMA, takes place on Saturday 7 January at 12noon.
New York-based, multi-disciplinary artist George Bolster combines science, science fiction and art history to explore the challenges we face as a sustainable society and as a sustainable species with a future on this planet.
In ‘Communication: We Are Not The Only Ones Talking…’, he examines language and the possibilities of understanding both other life forms on earth and signals from earth like planets.
His discussions with NASA scientists, astronomers from the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute and biologists from the Alaska Whale Foundation have informed the works throughout this exhibition.
The discovery of syntax (complex language) in humpback whales and bottlenose dolphins has foregrounded questions of how we interact with other species and how we readdress our place in both nature and evolution.
Following on from research conducted while artist in residence at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI), Bolster is fascinated by the discovery of over 5,000 planets by the NASA Kepler mission and other projects, and our potential ability to understand non-human languages on this planet, which may help in deciphering signals from other planets in the Milky Way. The SETI Institute proposes that if we manage to communicate with other forms of terrestrial life, we may be able to communicate with life on other planets. This has a multitude of meanings for the future of our species.
George Bolster is an Irish multidisciplinary artist who lives and works in New York. He has exhibited at numerous museums and galleries internationally. Through oppositional narratives, his work addresses ideas and belief systems from multiple perspectives, using a combination of science, art history, and science fiction to examine our most pressing societal and species-wide challenges.