Event - Spring Exhibitions Opening

Spring Exhibitions Opening

04.07.19, 1:00 pm

Join us for an opening celebration of the Queens Museum’s Spring 2019 exhibitions: Mundos Alternos: Art and Science Fiction in the Americas and Alexandria Smith: Monuments to an Effigy.

Experience an artist performance, join a curator-led tour, journey to other worlds during a science fiction film lecture, and listen to sounds from a galaxy far, far away in a special symphonic band performance closing out the afternoon. Plus there will be a free shuttle from the Mets-Willets Point 7-train subway station running from 12:30–5:30pm!

Exhibitions:

Mundos Alternos: Art and Science Fiction in the Americas
Mundos Alternos: Art and Science Fiction in the Americas
brings together contemporary artists from across the Americas who have tapped into science fiction’s capacity to imagine new realities, both utopian and dystopian. Science fiction offers a unique artistic landscape in which to explore the colonial enterprise that shaped the Americas and to present alternative perspectives speculating on the past and the future.

Alexandria Smith: Monuments to an Effigy
Monuments to an Effigy takes the history of the A.M.E. Church and The Olde Towne of Flushing Burial Ground as a departure point for a new collage, sculpture, and sound installation. Smith will continue her ongoing exploration of narrative, memory, and myth through the lens of the Black female form and psyche.

Schedule of Events:

1:00-2:00pm: “Latin American Science Fiction: Modernity and Resistance”
Scholar and film series curator Itala Schmelz will speak on the historical significance of science fiction iconography, as adapted in film from Latin America. Taking the theme of the 1939 World’s Fair, “The World of Tomorrow” as a lens, Schmelz considers how popular media can function as cultural resistance, and invites us to question our own expectations of the future in contemporary society. Films to be discussed include: La momia azteca contra el robot humano (Rafael Portillo, Mexico, 1957), Quinto poder (Alberto Pieralisi, Brazil, 1962), El año de la peste (Felipe Cazals, Mexico, 1978), and Hombre mirando al sudeste (Eliseo Subiela, Argentina, 1986), amongst others.
(QM Theater, 2nd Floor)

2:00-3:00pm: Tour of Mundos Alternos: Art and Science Fiction in the Americas with curators Robb Hernández and Joanna Szupinska-Myers
(Meet in the atrium, 1st Floor)

3:15pm: At Council; Found Peace, a collaborative performance featuring Alexandria Smith, Liz Gré and Maurisa Mansaray
At Council; Found Peace (Liz Gré, 2019) is an original composition for cello, soprano, and spoken voice that incorporates the poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks with gospel tonality. The sound performance explores the process of seeking clarity and guidance from those who came before: our mothers, our ancestors, our heroes and predecessors that thrived and persevered in another time.
(Gallery 1, 1st Floor)

4:15pm: Performance by The Lesbian & Gay Big Apple Corps Symphonic Band
Selections from There and Back Again: A Sci-fi and Fantasy Voyage
(Atrium, 1st Floor)

Images in order of appearance:
José Luis Vargas, The Museum of Supernatural History, 2015. Mixed media on tarp. Courtesy the artist.
Alexandria Smith, GloryGlory…, 2019 (detail). Mixed media collage installation on canvas and wood. Courtesy the artist.