(23:07 minutes) Selected by Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm

Lisa Tan thinks of the images of Mars as a death mask of Earth captured
millions of years in the future yet witnessed in the present. Compelled by
photographs from NASA’s expeditions depicting Mars’ topography, Tan
senses how the planet’s landscapes could be our own. Their familiarity
transports her to the desert terrain of the American Southwest where
she was raised.

A road trip through the desert frames questions around climate and
extintion referencing Roland Barthes’ seminal text on photo-graphy Camera
Lucida. Barthes’ text pivots around an image of the author’s deceased,
beloved mother as a child in what is known as the ‘Winter Garden’ pho-
tograph. In the film Tan replaces Barthes’ mother for “mother” Earth to
tranform its own pessimism into a joyful affirmation of earthbound existence.