PROXY
The installation 'Proxy' features a pair of almost identical robotic devices which have been designed to carry out the basic tasks involved in hunting for tardigrades and nematodes in samples of moss, lichen and earth originally taken from the natural habitat. Essence and Possibility owe much of their aesthetic and their contextual purpose to the twin Mars rovers 'Spirit' and 'Opportunity' which have been roaming and experimenting upon the surface of the red planet since January 2004.
In 'Proxy' we see a reversal in the normal relationships and assumed roles between humans and robots. Where normally we send robots to dangerous, inaccessible or inhospitable places, here it has been the artist that has undertaken excursions to difficult and inhospitable regions for the purpose of collecting samples which the robots, 'safe' and 'sound' in the gallery space, will investigate.
The tasks of Essence and Possibility are to find nematodes and tardigrades respectively in the samples brought to them. These are two of the most important organisms in current space flight and astrobiological research, their reactions to the space environment telling us much about the general reaction of living organisms to such extreme conditions. In Proxy, this biological importance is coupled with the subcontext that all missions to Mars are searching for signs of life, whether extant or extinct.
