Cody Chesnutt: Til I Met Thee

Artist and filmmaker Marco Brambilla salutes the golden age of space travel with Atlantis (OV-104), a video portrait of NASA’s beloved last manned shuttle that distills the dark, unsettling calm of the great beyond. Flickering images captured by an early 80s Ikegami camera recall early space transmissions and deep-sea exploration shots as they reveal the ghostly shape of the film’s eponymous spacecraft. Brambilla enhanced the organic quality of the footage by re-photographing segments of film through a vintage Sony tube monitor. “I wanted the coverage to feel imprecise, like a spotlight on the wreckage of a submarine,” explains the internationally exhibited installation artist and Kanye West collaborator, whose own enthusiasm for space travel began with a visit to the Kennedy Space Center as a child. With the help of public arts organization Creative Time, New York-based Brambilla scored access to the seasoned vessel on the day before it left to be restored for its debut at NASA’s Florida headquarters, where it will be on display beginning this Friday, over a quarter century after its first flight. Atlantis (OV-104) premieres at Christopher Grimes Gallery in Santa Monica the following day. “Atlantis is the last of a national program that was once the world’s most prestigious and experimental,” says Brambilla. “This marks the end of a huge effort that sought to bring people together.”

ATLANTIS STATS 

Source of the name
Atlantis was named after a two-masted sailing ship that was operated for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute from 1930-1966.

Number of missions
33.

Distance travelled since its first launch in 1985
125,935,769 miles.

Time spent in space
306 days, 14 hours, 12 minutes, 43 seconds.

Most time spent in space on single mission
13 days, 20 hours, 12 minutes, 44 seconds.

Number of planetary probes deployed
Two—Magellan for Venus and Galileo for Jupiter.

Film appearances
Two—SpaceCamp and Deep Impact.

A lone kabuki dancer performs against an urban tableau wearing full kumadori makeup in choreographer Benjamin Millepied's video for the Io Echo track “Eye Father.” Since meeting at a party and bonding over masochism and The Velvet Underground, Washington D.C.-native Ioanna Gika and her London-born partner in crime Leopold Ross have scored films for Harmony Korine, toured with Florence and the Machine and opened for Nine Inch Nails’ last-ever show. In “Eye Father,” Io Echo’s koto harp, hazy guitars and ethereal vocals are visualized in the vivid palette of classical Japanese theater. “Kabuki sets are so beautiful and rich in color, I wanted to find urban spaces with that quality,” explains director Millepied, who shot the film at a number of scenic Hollywood spots, including Los Angeles Harbor and a SoCal supermarket. “It looked like we were in rural China, but we were in this all-American urban landscape.” The cultural mash-up resonates well with Io Echo’s own penchant for mixing musical influences. “We’re interested in the sound and aesthetic of Asian cultures, but we’re not trying to emulate it literally,” Gika explains. “You can listen to our songs and imagine a Far Eastern forest, but ours is infused with purple smoke and twisted willows.” Currently in the finishing stages of Io Echo’s debut album, Gika shares the dreams that inspire the work, and a custom haiku. 

What was on the stereo when you were growing up?
Ioanna Gika: Enya, Vangelis, chant, classical and new age. 

Favorite new band?
IG: Haleek Maul, a teenage rapper from Barbados.

Dreams: black and white or Technicolor? 
IG: Technicolor. Once the sky was so blue I was terrified.

Collaboration fantasy?
IG: Kofi Annan or Philip Glass.

Favorite Japanese restaurant in LA?
IG: Sushi Ike––they do a great fresh octopus.

Write us a haiku?
IG: Wrote haikus all day
and apparently I am
still writing haikus.

Click here for Io Echo and Benjamin Millepied's second video collaboration, plus a chat with Leopold Ross.

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