Steve McQueen,
Once Upon a Time, 2002.
Sequence of 116 slide base colour images through a PC Hard drive and rear projected onto a screen with integrated soundtrack.
70 minutes.

Courtesy:
Marian Goodman Gallery,
New York.

Steve McQueen
Once Upon a Time

April 25 - July 5, 2009

Steve McQueen’s Once upon a Time was inspired by the Golden Record, a time capsule intended to communicate a story of human and natural life to extraterrestrials and carried aboard Voyagers 1 and 2. The twin spacecraft, now the furthest manmade objects away from Earth, were launched in 1977 and are still on an exploratory journey across the universe. The Golden Record is a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk containing sounds and images portraying the diversity of life on Earth, selected for NASA by a committee chaired by astronomer, educator, and author Carl Sagan.

To make Once upon a Time McQueen appropriated and digitized the 116 archival images but replaced the original audio track of natural sounds, music, and spoken greetings in 55 languages with the recording of people “speaking in tongues.” This phenomenon, also known as glossolalia, is an indecipherable, invented language often associated with religious ecstasy as experienced by evangelist Christians. The artist is interested in exploring other levels of consciousness, specifically ways we can break through barriers, or move past and beyond particular situations, through prayer, chant, or meditation.

As McQueen states, the Golden Record speaks to the future, as it is expected to exist far longer than the Earth itself. As viewers we watch an optimistic tale of progress; as listeners we have little comprehension of what are familiar, but ultimately strange human noises. What we are left with is the defining paradox of Once upon a Time: the sounds are as foreign to our ears as the images and audio would be to an alien civilization chancing upon the Golden Record.

Opening Reception: Saturday, April 25, 3 - 5 p.m.
Talk and Screening: Reviewing Distance Learning: Steve McQueen’s Objectivity Talk by Saul Ostrow Thursday, May 28, 7 p.m., Jeanne and Peter Lougheed Room 204