Dominique Gonzalez Foerster Alienarium 5 review – an all together now of beautiful minds

over 3 years in The guardian

Serpentine Gallery, LondonFellow aliens Alan Turing, Georgia O’Keeffe, David Bowie et al convene in outer space in the French artist’s beguiling tribute to earthly geniusAt the back of the Serpentine Gallery, among the spring blossom, is a strange vision of elsewhere. You must stand outdoors to see it, through a pane of glass darkly. At first it looks like a drop of milk, falling in slow motion, its splash rising in a delicate corona. Then it twists and expands, and twists again, like some dancing double helix. It is only a hologram, flickering in blackness, but the poetry exceeds the technology: it looks like an ever-growing Milky Way coming into view from some unimaginable distance.Inside the gallery is a wall pierced with peepholes at different heights, including several perfectly judged for small children. Put your eye to a hole, and beyond is the back of an immense head turned away from us in sepulchral gloom. Auburn tresses tumble down to the ground in a gleaming cascade, like the hair of some B-movie starlet on a giant silver screen. But is the head female, is it even meant to be a human being – who knows? Continue reading...

Share it on