The Degree Show on Mars – Online
Sara Jaspan, Exhibitions Editor
With the world in a state of disarray, art students from Liverpool John Moores University have not only decided to move their degree show online, but to another planet entirely, in search of new perspectives on the current global situation and the altered future they face post-graduation.
Using detailed 3D scans taken by NASA, the exhibition promises to transport viewers to the Gale crater on Mars, where they will find a virtual landscape scattered with crash-landed objects. Each object represents a graduating artist, and acts as a portal or wormhole, leading back in time and space to an exhibition in Liverpool staged by the students one week prior to Lockdown. Documented using 3D software, visitors will be able to wander around the entire show, consisting of work by the 53 artists, and travel through further portals to explore how each is responding to the Lockdown through their practice.
The Degree Show on Mars launches on 5 June with a live event featuring curated walk-throughs and recommended artworks by an impressive range of external selectors, including Hans Ulrich Obrist, Ryan Gander and Miranda Sawyer.
From their extraterrestrial perch, what will today’s batch of newest art graduates have to say about the turbulent times we are living through and the many possible tomorrows that might emerge? Rather than a cry of abandonment, their collective statement – “The planet is currently broken. We are doing our degree show on Mars” – is an intriguing proposition. A signal of intent, perhaps, calling for a radical response to the challenges we are currently facing back on Earth. And, let’s be honest, there are quite a few.
