MPA: THE INTERVIEW: Red, Red Future

Human colonization of Mars is expected to begin in the coming decades as NASA and independent space ventures partner with corporate investors to explore the future of life and resources on the planet. The recent discovery of flowing water on Mars’s surface fuels speculation that the red planet may already support life. In this extraordinary context, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston is pleased to present a solo exhibition by the artist MPA (b. 1980). Working closely with the artist, the museum has commissioned a dynamic site-sensitive installation that combines sculpture, photographs, drawings, atmospheric lighting, and a hotline phone visitors may use to contact the artist and speak about Mars.

Combining technology with minimalist aesthetics, MPA’s exhibition sheds light on invisible forces and power. This exhibition is the culmination of the artist’s multi-year, ongoing investigation of Mars. The exhibited works offer evidence of MPA’s outlook on the planet’s future and her speculations about life it may already support. More broadly, THE INTERVIEW: Red, Red Future considers the colonial implications of settling the red planet, possibilities for the co-existence of rational and mythical beliefs, and notions of imagination as power.

THE INTERVIEW: Red, Red Future is organized by CAMH Curator Dean Daderko.

Publication
A full-color artist’s book accompanies this exhibition. It includes an essay by Dean Daderko and interviews by MPA with cultural theorists Stefano Harney and Fred Moten, investigative journalist Linda Moulton Howe, and architect Vicente de Szyszlo. This content is available online at www.camh.org/redfuture. Designed by Amanda Thomas, edited by Rose d’Amora and Patricia Restrepo, and printed in a limited edition of 450 signed and numbered copies, the publication is available for purchase through CAMH’s Museum Shop. This publication is made possible through a grant from The Brown Foundation, Inc.
 

Programs
MPA and Curator Dean Daderko in conversation
February 27, 2–3pm 

Panel discussion
March 25, 6:30–8pm 

Literary reading
April 21, 6:30–7:30pm 

Program collaborators
The panel discussion—organized by FotoFest International, Ballroom Marfa, and the Public Concern Foundation—is presented in conjunction with FotoFest’s 2016 Biennial CHANGING CIRCUMSTANCES: Looking at the Future of The Planet, which considers climate change from the perspectives of artistic practice, public policy, critical theory, and environmental science.

The literary reading is a co-presention with the Houston literary journal Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts.