GALLERIES Exploring links between sci-fi and the body
Naughton Gallery at Queen’s University Road, Belfast Until April 8
This fascinating exhibition, running at the Naughton and curated by Rachel Steinberg, is part of the NI Science Festival and has been generously supported by the British Council Northern Ireland.
Steinberg, who lives in Brooklyn, is interested in video art and collaborative practices. Her focus is on artwork that changes perceptions.
The question asked here is, where does a body end and a piece of technology begin? What does it mean to have a body as it relates to consciousness? Can we synthesise the metrics of bodily experience?
Speculative Skins explores and challenges these questions and more with an internationally focused group of artists who delve into the relationship between science fiction and the body.
They draw on contemporary narratives and technologies to hypothesise potential futures, while also referencing pop culture sources including Star Wars, The X-Files and Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon to explore race, gender and bodily identity through the lens of science fiction.
The artists utilise a variety of media and formats including video, animation, interactive sculpture, comics, books and archives.
One artist stands out for their international reputation and will be well known to Manga fans here in Northern Ireland (Manga is a generic term for comics originating in Japan read by all ages and often attaining a very high level of illustration).
Naoko Takeuchi, a chemist by degree, is the creator of a very famous Manga series, Sailor Moon. The series follows the adventures of a schoolgirl named Usagi Tsukino as she transforms into Sailor Moon to search for a magical artefact, the Legendary Silver Crystal.
Naoko brings an interest in applied science and science fiction to the questions posed.
Other artists involved include Norah Khan and Stephen Warwick, perhaps best known together for their seminal study of fear in the X-Files.
Amanda Turner Pohan and New York-based artists Loney Abrams and Johnny Stanish also contribute.
Elizabeth Baird