Title Roadside Rocket I, 2007 Caption Hawk surface to air missile near Las Cruces
Space Lands is the result of a project executed between 2007 and 2009 in the southwest states of the USA by Millennium contributor Paul Freeman.
To view a gallery of these images please click here
Freeman was drawn to New Mexico in 2007 when he heard of an ambitious plan by Sir Richard Branson to launch a space tourist business from a spaceport in the New Mexico desert. This initial visit meant that the artist developed a fascination with the region and its people, influencing him to return many times. Freeman's work is influenced by literary figures as well as the visual. In the case of Space Lands the writings of J.G.Ballard were a strong factor, both in the selection of landscapes and portrait subjects. Space Lands reflects a beautiful desert world where the machinery of mass destruction and its interpenetration of the local economy is closely related to the entrepreneurs who dream of launching billionaire tourists into space.
Space Lands incorporates pictures of artifacts from the ‘first space age’ which ended with the Apollo landings, and the remnants of the space and missile tourism that accompanied this period. It also contains photographs of the landscapes and early development of ‘Spaceport America’ which is currently under construction, and portraits of the local people who are connected to the past and future of space exploration.
Exhibition Dates Friday 8th January To Monday 15th February
Opening times (7 days a week) are 10am to 6pm Monday to Wednesday, 10am to 7pm Thursday to Saturday and 11am to 5pm on Sundays.
Venue Three White Walls
Level 3, The Mailbox
Wharfside Street
Birmingham, B1 1XL
