45″x288″x15″; digital collage on paper, rice paper, styrofoam, mylar, synthetic dyes,
aerosol paint, fishing line, wooden dowels, LED lights; 2022. Courtesy of the artist.
COLLAGE ON VIEW
Mary A. Johnson: Men on Mars
at Box13 ArtSpace in Houston, Texas, USA
19 March-30 April 2022
A window glowing in pinks and reds of an imaginary Martian landscape reminiscent of the idealized American West, Men on Mars investigates how myth plays a central role in how we experience our own spaces and selves and colors our perception of others. It uses imagery of recent corporate space travel while sardonicizing themes of adventure, exploration and national exceptionalism found in mythic structures. The work pulls from ancient Chinese myth texts Shan Hai Jin and Journey to the West and hybridizes them with American mythology: historical (e.g., Paul Bunyan), contemporary (e.g., Captain America), and ideal (e.g., The American Dream).
45″x288″x15″; digital collage on paper, rice paper, styrofoam, mylar, synthetic dyes,
aerosol paint, fishing line, wooden dowels, LED lights; 2022. Courtesy of the artist.
Men on Mars is a site-specific installation developed for Box13 ArtSpace’s Window Box, facing Cesar Chavez Boulevard in Houston.
Images utilized are the artist’s own, as well as from Currier and Ives’ Chronicles of America, The Smithsonian Institution’s image database, the NASA database, The Biodiversity Heritage Library, comic books from 1982 to the present day, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and others.
(text adapted from the artist’s press materials)
INFORMATION
Box13 ArtSpace
6700 Harrisburg Boulevard
Houston, Texas 77011 USA
box13artspace@gmail.com
Hours:
Men on Mars is viewable from the outside at all hours.
Gallery hours: Saturday, 1-5PM and by appointment