Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster: ‘Alienarium 5’
Turns out, aliens stink. And they’re hairy too. You can see for yourself, because there’s one here at the Serpentine. You peek through a little peephole in the wall and there it is in the dark, a gargantuan hirsute apparition on an undulating golden carpet, its scent wafting through the space, a heady mixture of wood, metal, dust and sweat. This is Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster’s guest, dropping down to earth to visit her purpose-built ‘alienarium’, an environment in which to imagine future encounters with new alien species. The central space is covered by a mural, a ‘Sgt Pepper’-style collage of sci-fi and art figures. You spot David Bowie, Yayoi Kusama and Tilda Swinton in among the satellites, spaceships and portraits of sci-fi authors. Strewn on the floor are cushions covered with the artwork of classic sci-fi novels by brilliant writers like Ursula K Le Guin, John Brunner, Joanna Russ and Stanislaw Lem. I’d love to say I thought there was some big overarching concept at play here, but really this just feels like a super-nerdy, ultra-passionate love letter to science fiction, to its power to make you consider new ideas, imagine new futures and hope for new outcomes. And it’s great: an intense trip into Gonzalez-Foerster’s passion for the genre. There’s a creature floating past you made of millions of luminescent filaments undulating in the vacuum There’s a VR element to the show too, which places visitors inside an alien body, staring out through space at other species.