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ARTWORK: Xuming Du
Alien to Academia Amy Briggs The subject of aliens and the paranormal have been a relatively taboo subject for governments and academics. In astronomy and cosmology, it has generally been accepted that if you want to be taken “seriously”, you shouldn’t touch the subject of aliens. Of course, when most people see the word alien, images of horror movies, E.T. and more come to mind. The image of scientific research and papers almost never comes to mind first.
(unidentified aerial phenomena) encounters that have been recorded. The last time a hearing took place was more than 50 years ago, when UAPs were referred to as UFOs. The reason for this hearing was not to verify UAP footage, but to try and look for human activity.
New Faces and Old Spaces: Know My Name Exhibition Review
The first academic paper to investigate the subject of aliens was Encounters by Edith Fiore, published in 1997. The paper is a collection of psychological case studies of abduction victims. There have been criticisms of Encounters, as Fiore used hypnotic therapeutic techniques in the trial and possible unintended priming of Nearly thirty years ago, The Guerrilla Girls the subjects by admitting that she believed in quipped that the advantages of being a woman encounters and was “abducted” herself. These artist included “working without the pressure of sort of statements may have influenced the case success”.This criticism struck at the hypocrisy of studies and thus, are not in-line with generally museums and galleries who were willing to display accepted science practices. These practices females as subjects whilst simultaneously refusing being that researchers should not allow their bias to recognise them as artists in their own right. to influence the participants. Significant advances in gender equality have been made since then, but this has barely translated to By being the first paper on a subject, the art world. Curators at the National Gallery of Encounters set the standard. If scientists are Australia discovered this themselves upon observing interested in studying UFOs (unidentified flying that the number of pieces by living women in their objects) and related alien content, it is hard to collection had shrunk over the past four decades, remove stigma, especially if agencies and grant despite the increasing prominence of female artists bodies believe that the subject has no scientific worldwide.
worth.
Acting as a mea culpa is the newly opened Recently, the U.S. Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 Congress held a hearing to Now. The exhibition features over 400 works by to discuss UAP 170 female-identifying individuals, with household names like Grace Cossington-Smith, Fiona Hall, and Tracey Moffatt displayed alongside lesser-known but equally skilled female artists. By showing new faces in old spaces, the exhibition presents an assault on the canon that artistic establishments operate under. Ultimately, it is a triumphant and thoughtful representation of women, their work, and their experiences, through the prism of art.
Even if the U.S. Congress was not looking to verify otherworldly life, the media and public attention brought by the hearing may change Isabella Vacaflores sentiment towards research into aliens. It may be more acceptable to include the phrase alien and UAP in future research. The Australian Space Agency is our own organization that deals in this area, and they are yet to make a public stance on the validity of previousAalien encounters. In their 2019 – 2028 hanging of nearly 50 portraits at the Civil Space strategy, there are no projects listed entrance of Know My Name causes a double looking into aliens or UAPs. This makes sense as take. From Brenda Croft’s stunning monochrome the agency was only established in 2018, but then photos of a First Nations elder in Matilda (Ngambri/ again, aliens and UAP content have a reputation. Ngunnawal) (2019) to Joy Hester’s amorphous acrylic Woman With Rose (1956) and Kate Beynon’s acutely If researchers are not directly referencing millennial self-portrait (2012), women dominate a or researching aliens, would they be indirectly historically patriarchal space. The sheer number of looking for them? females on show implicitly sets the exhibition up to offer a pluralised understanding of the artists Currently, there is a growing body of displayed, recognising that no two individuals are research into exoplanets. Exoplanets are planets the same.
in other solar systems. The first exoplanets were discovered in 1992, orbiting around a pulsar The curatorial choice of thematically (meaning that there would be no water on the grouping artworks instead of organising them in planets). As of 2022, there have been 5005 conventionally teleological displays supports this. exoplanets discovered. Some of these planets In Remembering the soft textures of Kathy Temin’s look to be habitable (meaning at a safe distance Pavilion Garden (2012) offers a different perspective from their star and possibly containing water). to the drama of Rosemary Laing’s photographs They may hold alien life. More research and time of falling brides in Flight Research (1999) and the is needed to confirm which planets, if any, have grungy desolation of eX de Medici’s watercolour life. tableau The Wreckers (2018-19). By setting aside
traditional cultural and chronological boundaries, So, we may never get to meet Paul, and the exhibition rejects potentially exclusionary researchers may continue to avoid UAPs and alien essentialist narratives of women’s experiences and abductions. What we will definitely see is more highlights the intangible relationships between research into exoplanets and hopefully life on artists and their works.
discovered ones.
