Nudging Jupiter and Tear Stains on Ocean Waves

Currently on exhibit at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Dario Robleto: The Signal highlights the artist’s multiyear exploration of the Golden Record, a gold-plated phonograph recording containing sounds and images selected in the late 1970s by a team at NASA to portray life on Earth to extraterrestrials.

Supported by related sculptures and works on paper, the centerpiece of the exhibition is Robleto’s newly commissioned work Ancient Beacons Long for Notice, an immersive, 70-minute film based on a rare and forgotten document—the first audio recording of warfare—which was considered for inclusion on the Golden Record. Ancient Beacons Long for Notice is the third and final installment in a trilogy of video and sound installations that comprise Robleto’s years-long investigation of the scientific, philosophical, and moral tensions of attempts to represent the totality of human life even after humans cease to exist.

Dario Robleto (b. 1972), The Boundary of Life is Quietly Crossed, 2019, two-channel 4K video (51:00), Courtesy of the artist, © Dario Robleto

Maggie Adler, the Carter’s Curator of Paintings, Sculpture, and Works on Paper and curator of The Signal, writes of the artist and the exhibition:

If we send a message beyond the solar system, will anyone ever hear it? And if by some infinitesimally small chance humanity has an audience billions of miles away, what would we want to convey about who we are to that imagined audience? These are the central questions of artist Dario Robleto. In a more than decades-long investigation of NASA’s Golden Record, sent into space in 1977, Robleto wonders, what essence of humanity is contained in our signals—the pulse waves of heartbeats recorded on EKGs or in scans of our brains? If humanity has a last will and testament, what are the ethics of its contents? Through sculpture, photographs, prints, and film, he investigates the significance of generations of lives lived and the emotions and impact our actions have on each other and in the cosmos. It is a poignant and evocative exhibition that asks many questions and inspires us to consider our place in the universe. The centerpiece is a film in the style of a vintage science television program. We are delighted to debut Robleto’s latest film here at the Carter, Ancient Beacons Long for Notice.

Dario Robleto (b. 1972), Unknown and Solitary Seas (Dreams and Emotions of the 19th Century) (detail), 2018, earliest waveform recordings of blood flowing from the heart and in the brain during sleep, dreaming, and various emotional states (1874–96), rendered and 3D printed in brass-plated stainless steel; lacquered maple, and 22k gold leaf, Courtesy of the artist, © Dario Robleto