Kelly Richardson Mariner 9
Saturday 7th March to Sunday 28th June 2020
Mariner 9 Kelly Richardson, Image by Colin Davidson
Kelly Richardson (b. 1972, Canada) is a contemporary artist who works with digital scenic technology more often used by the film and videogame industries to create relaistic and highly charged virtual landscapes. Richardson’s work has been widely acclaimed in North America, Asia and Europe. Recent solo exhbition include Dundee Contemporary Arts, CAG Vancouver, VOID Derry and Albright- Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York.
Her video installations have been included in presentation at the Toronto FIlm Festival and the Sundance Film Festival. From 2003-2017 Ricahrdson lived in north east England where she was a Lecturer in Fine Arts at Newcastle University. She is Associate Professor in Visual Arts at the University of Victoria.
‘Mariner 9’ (2012) is a panoramic view of an imaginary Martian landscape, hundreds of years in the future. The minutely detailed scene was created using data originally collected by NASA, and shows a variety of real and imagined spacecraft in the midst of a dust storm. Most of the failing and damaged spacecraft are no more than rusting remains.
Although the surface of the planet appears to be abandoned, some of the damaged spacecraft continue to splutter into action, looking for signs of life. There is no sign of human life anywhere in the landscape, nor any clue that there is anyone left to receive and process the data that the machines are attempting to collect.
Richardson has stretched the capabilities of the scenic technology to the limit, creating a realistic red planet complete with its own distinctive geology, weather patterns and soundscape.
It was oringinally commissioned by Tyneside Cinema and is presented at Attenborough Arts Centre courtesy of the artist.
