PATRON is proud to present our second solo exhibition with Richmond-based artist, Brittany Nelson. The exhibition titled -10,000 Light Years From Home will open with a reception for the artist on Saturday, June 29th from 5-8PM and continue through August 17, 2019.

The exhibition combines research from the science fiction author Alice Sheldon, who wrote under the pseudonym of James Tiptree Jr., and images from the Mars Opportunity Rover to discuss queer politics, science fiction, loneliness, and isolation.


A series of reflective holograms depict a hand-written manuscript by Alice Sheldon. Writing as Tiptree, she details her continual failed attempts at relationships with women. Sheldon remained closeted throughout her life, apart from her -fantasticalwritingthrough her alter-ego that described attractions to alien beings.

Installed alongside the holograms, images captured by the Mars Opportunity Rover depict the Martian landscape. The photographs show the lone rover looking back at her tracks as she roamed the planet for over 14 years of isolation and unscheduled missions. Created in the romantic, pictorialist-era process of Bromoil, the silver is removed and the image is slowly reconstructed with black ink by hand in an effort to touch the alien landscape.
 

On the occasion of the exhibition, Nelson's new artist book with be available: 
Brittany Nelson: Out Of The Everywhere
Edited by Stefanie Hessler, Contributors: Lars Bang Larsen, Danielle Dean, Gordon Hall, Stefanie Hessler, Quinn Latimer and Gala Porras-Kim
Published and distributed by: Mouse Publishing, Milan–Italy 
Copyright 2019

Image: Brittany Nelson, Olympia, 2019.