REMEMBER A FUTURE PAST

Exhibition Press Release

7 – 12 December 2007
Hockney Gallery, Stevens Building, Royal College of Art

Remember a Future Past brings together the work of Katie Royal College of Art
Paterson, Jack Strange, John Timberlake and Marie Velardi. Curating Contemporary Art Department
Working in a variety of media, these emerging artists all deal Kensington Gore, London SW7 2EU
with visualisations and imaginings of outer space and distant
or unattainable times to come. Info
020 7590 4494
For Earth-Moon-Earth (Moonlight Sonata Reflected from the cca@rca.ac.uk
Surface of the Moon) (2007) Katie Paterson has translated
Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata into Morse code, which is then
reflected off the moon and re-coded as a new musical score. Data
lost in the craters of the irregular lunar surface produce glitches
and omissions to create a new, fragmented composition. The work
was originally performed by a computer-controlled grand piano
and this recording was pressed onto a vinyl record, which will play
in the exhibition.
Jack Strange’s crude assemblage, Believe (2006) consists
of an upturned monitor playing a fast-paced slide show of
low-resolution spacescapes. A limited edition ‘Believe’ Mars Bar,
produced on the occasion of the 2006 World Cup, is placed in
the centre of the screen. Strange explains that the work acts as
a ‘cheap trick, like the special effects of 1950s sci-fi’, paling in
comparison to the inter-galactic forces to which it alludes.

John Timberlake has described his Russian Paintings II and III

(2004) as ‘traditional painterly astronomical illustrations based
on verbal scientific instructions, rather than the artist’s own
observation.’ He appropriates texts and images produced in
the early days of the Soviet Space Program, but removes all the
empirical and scientific data which has become obsolete with the
passing of time, thus focusing on the illustrations’ artistic qualities.

Future Perfect, 21st Century (2006) by Marie Velardi is a 5-meter

paper scroll, a prophetic chart of utopian and dystopian
predictions for the 21st century, drawn from popular culture and the
literature of science-fiction. These visions of our imagined future
range from the eerily familiar to the fantastically absurd.

Remember a Future Past is selected from work presented at Zoo Art

Fair 2007. The exhibition is organised by the 1st year MA Curating
Contemporary Art students at the RCA.

Editors Notes
Ma Curating Contemporary Art at The Royal College of Art
The MA Curating Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art
was set up in 1992 and was the first postgraduate programme in
Britain to specialise in curatorial practice relating to contemporary
art. The course is designed to offer both a vocational training in
and an academic study of curatorial practice, underpinned by an
understanding of the wider cultural and critical context. The course
provides an introduction to the ways in which the contemporary
visual arts are funded, presented, interpreted and managed in Private View
Britain and internationally. Students gain practical skills in curating Thursday 6 December 2007 6 - 8pm
exhibitions and managing art commissions and meet a wide After Party from 8pm RCA ArtBar
range of professional curators, critics, artists and administrators. Drinks Provided by Firefly
The programme provides a professional preparation for curators,
exhibition organisers, critics, arts administrators and those who Artists’ Talk
wish to work with artists to present art outside a gallery setting. Tuesday 11 December 6:30pm
The Department is developing research in curatorial history and Lecture Theatre 2, Darwin Building
practice and also offers MPhil and PhD courses in this area. The Katie Paterson & John Timberlake
course is co-funded by the Royal College of Art and Arts Council
England. Opening Times
Friday 7 - Wednesday 12 December 2007
The Royal College of Art Open by appoinment until 5pm
The Royal College of Art is the world’s only wholly postgraduate Closed Sunday
university of art and design, specialising in teaching and research
and offering the degrees of MA, MPhil and PhD across the Press Images and Appointments
disciplines of fine art, applied art, design, communications and Available from Wang Shang
humanities. There are over 900 masters and doctoral students shang.wang@students.rca.ac.uk or
and more than a hundred professionals interacting with them – (0)77 76001907
including scholars, leading art and design practitioners, along with
specialists, advisors and distinguished visitors. With thanks to the Zabludowicz Collection