Incidents of Travel in the Multiverse at HOME, preview: Filming the future

HOME presents a visionary exhibition by artist and filmmaker duo AL and AL, which asks “what is there beyond the universe?”

It’s been quite a journey for AL and AL, since they first met in Derek Jarman’s garden in 1997. Later graduating from Central St Martin’s together, the duo have since exhibited internationally in over 50 countries in galleries, film festivals and concert halls, also with site-specific installations and on television.

The Multiverse – the theme of their latest exhibition – is a scientific theory that points to the probability that the universe may in fact be a small part of a much grander reality. Inspired by this revolutionary concept, this major new solo show will feature film, drawing, installation and a live concert hall performance. It brings together three related journeys that the artists have undertaken.

“Every variable of everything that could ever happen has happened to us. To all of us. What is there beyond the universe?”, the duo ask. “Another universe just like our own. And again another. And another. Leading scientists now seriously consider the possibility that the quantum Multiverse is real. We are lucky enough to be born and making art during what could be the most radical upheaval ever of our picture of reality since we discovered the Earth was not flat. So we made a sci-fi trilogy to explore this new, ever expanding territory…”

“Every variable of everything that could ever happen has happened to us. To all of us”

The first journey, Icarus at the Edge of Time, is a re-imagining of the original myth, but instead of the sun, Icarus travels to the edge of a black hole. Based on the children’s novella by Professor Brian Greene, this ground-breaking concert hall spectacle includes a film by AL and AL and an original score by Philip Glass. Greene will narrate live in an exclusive North West premiere performance with the BBC Philharmonic on 6 February at the Royal Northern College of Music.

The second journey, The Creator, was originally commissioned by Cornerhouse and AND Festival in 2012. This film sees thinking machines from the future travel back in time in search of their creator, Alan Turing. Finally, the third journey will feature the world premiere of The Demiurge, inspired by Francis Crick’s Panspermia theory on the origins of life, and the work of nanobiophysicist Bart Hoogenboom who created the world’s first ‘real’ images of DNA. The Demiurge travels across the universe on board a spaceship, populated by a thousand genetically modified female clones on a mission to find a cure for death.

All three films will feature as installations in HOME’s gallery space. As if this wasn’t enough, the exhibition will also be accompanied by a new publication featuring a compelling insight into the artist’s journey. We, for one, are looking forward to where it will take us.