We Are All Made of Stars

Memory Gospel by Moby


Kopeikin Gallery is currently showing "Destroyed," an exhibit of photography by the electronica musician, Moby. I'm usually hesitant to view art produced by celebrities, but Moby has always struck me as having an engaging and comprehensive aesthetic foundation. Moreover, the premise of the work, a study of the dynamic expressiveness of crowds at a concert, stuck me as an interesting concept. It's the type of photography that really can only be done by a popular musician like Moby.

So I went to check it out. At first, I just walked around the gallery casually observing the images, seeing if anything jumped out at me. Eh, it was certainly a fun set of photos but nothing really packed a punch. Then, I did the deeper examination, scrutinizing each piece for composition, color, and distinctness. Hmm, it was impressive documentation with a good eye for image crafting, but it still didn't "wow" me. Then I did another gallery stroll but with my improved familiarity of the photos. Now, the unique energy of each shot shouted out at me.

Detail of Sunspot by Moby


The images have a strong tension between the Universalized and the Individualized. Yes, each photograph depicts a crowd, but each crowd has its own unique expressive vibe. And each crowd is composed of discrete individuals reacting to the specific focus of the camera. Yet, the individuality of the person is overwhelmed by the group identity and energy of the crowd. The particular becomes accumulated into an aggregate composite identity.

Under the Moons of Mars

Bellona by Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick

I have long been a fan of planetary romances. The idea of ancient alien civilizations upon distant planets has captured my imagination. I've often considered writing within the genre, but I worry that I'd end up writing some imitative tripe, a Barsoom rip-off. To a degree, the entire subgenre can be described as a reiteration upon the themes that Edgar Rice Burroughs set forth in the novel A Princess of Mars.

A good planetary romance explores the concept of "civilization" by constructing alien societies and assessing them through a narrative with which the reader can closely identify. So ideas, such as decadence, patriotism, isolationism or exploitation, are integral elements of the subgenre. Yet, while these ideas play across the narrative, it is under an atmospheric mood of loneliness and yearning. The narrator is a "stranger in a strange land".

And it is the ability to capture this mood that I find so compelling in the Kopeikin Gallery's exhibit "Mars: Adrift on the Hourglass Sea. Desolation and the Sublime on a Distant Planet" by Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick.



Earthrise by Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick