2021
16mm and HD video
15 minutes

The first episode established the groundwork for the dialectic between the pyramidal structure of ancient monolithic architecture and the parabolic shape of modern radio telescopes. Featuring found dash-cam footage of the apocalyptic fireball that came crashing down from outer space into Chelyabinsk, Russia, Pyramids and Parabolas started with a bang that signaled our precarity in the cosmos as a vulnerable planet amidst powerful natural forces. Our relationship to nature is not just what is on Earth; we live in a nature that is largely inhospitable to humans and other living organisms. 

Calling attention to the body to foreground the experiential aspect of the film, the second episode of Pyramids and Parabolas begins with a two-minute body scan meditation in the dark. Followed by a quote from the Three Body Problem, “Three days from now, between one and five in the morning, the entire universe will flicker for you” — which acts almost like a spell, the film is a travelogue of the artist journeying through surreal and sublime landscapes in nature. Bookended by the building of a NASA JOVE radio telescope in Twentynine Palms, California, the collage film is the artist’s quest to touch the cosmos and connect with the universe through flesh.

More info:
artforum.com/print/reviews/202106/alice-wang-85839