Project Description
Judit Hersko exhibition, Anna’s Cabinet of Curiosities from the series Pages from the Book of the Unknown Explorer March2011, curated by Lanfranco Aceti, Vince Dziekan and Christiane Paul for OCR’s Media Exhibition Platform (MEP). This series consists of installations and a performance lecture by multimedia artist Judit Hersko based on her collaboration with scientists and her experience in Antarctica as a recipient of the National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers Grant in 2008/09. Released on a daily basis, Hersko examines polar exploration and science through text and images presented from the perspective of a fictitious, unknown, female explorer, Anna Schwartz, who travels to Antarctica with the 1939 Byrd Antarctic expedition. Hersko inserts Anna’s character into real events and scientific quests thereby spawning a narrative that reflects on the absence of women from the history of Antarctic exploration and science until the late 1960s.
Judit Hersko is a multimedia artist who works in the intersection of art and science. She is an Associate Professor in the Visual and Performing Arts Department at California State University San Marcos where she initiated the art and science project.
