{"id":24809,"date":"2024-04-26T14:17:21","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T18:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=24809"},"modified":"2024-05-02T11:19:42","modified_gmt":"2024-05-02T15:19:42","slug":"straus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2024\/04\/26\/straus\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking Back To A Lost Earth In Jessica Straus’s ‘Packing for Mars’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In Somerville artist Jessica Straus<\/a>\u2019s exhibition \u201cPacking for Mars,\u201d<\/a> at Boston Sculptors Gallery from April 4 to May 5, 2024, she \u201clooks forward with dread to a future when humans must flee a devastated Earth to settle on far flung, arid worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite oligarch aspirations, the notion of humans living long-term on other celestial bodies remains a difficult and terribly costly pipe dream due to the lack of necessities like breathable air, drinkable water, things to eat, shielding from cosmic radiation\u2014the sort of resources that are plentiful here on earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Straus approaches the subject with grim, wistful humor. She whittles a row of wooden specimens of grasses from her native New Hampshire, like forlorn keepsakes from an extinct now. And she fills small suitcases with dioramas of carved folksy wooden figures looking longingly, regretfully back across space to the fecund earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previously:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Jessica Straus\u2019s \u2018Portrait Of The World Without Us\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Love And War Inspire Jessica Straus\u2019s \u2018TransAtlantic\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, occasional newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content \u00a9Greg Cook 2024 or the respective creato<\/em>rs.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jessica
Jessica Straus’s 2024 exhibition “Packing for Mars” at Boston Sculptors Gallery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Jessica
Jessica Straus, “The Abyss,” in 2024 exhibition “Packing for Mars” at Boston Sculptors Gallery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Jessica
Jessica Straus, “Missing You” (detail), in 2024 exhibition “Packing for Mars” at Boston Sculptors Gallery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Jessica
Jessica Straus, “Looking to the Shoals,” in 2024 exhibition “Packing for Mars” at Boston Sculptors Gallery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Jessica
Jessica Straus, “Missing You,” in 2024 exhibition “Packing for Mars” at Boston Sculptors Gallery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Jessica
Jessica Straus “Grasses” in 2024 exhibition “Packing for Mars” at Boston Sculptors Gallery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Jessica
Jessica Straus, “Missing You” (foreground) and “Grasses,” in 2024 exhibition “Packing for Mars” at Boston Sculptors Gallery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Somerville artist Jessica Straus\u2019s exhibition \u201cPacking for Mars,\u201d at Boston Sculptors Gallery from April 4 to May 5, 2024, she \u201clooks forward with dread to a future when humans must flee a devastated Earth to settle on far flung, arid worlds.\u201d Despite oligarch aspirations, the notion of humans living long-term on other celestial bodies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24862,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[500,935],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24809"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24809"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24889,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24809\/revisions\/24889"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}