A Galaxy Six Feet Away 

Curator: Alex Gross's "A Galaxy Six Feet Away" presents us with an intriguing blend of pop culture and pandemic realities. What's your initial impression? Editor: Visually, it's arresting. The sheer number of masked "Star Wars" characters holding various treats is both absurd and unsettling, it really highlights our new normal. Curator: It’s fascinating how Gross merges familiar figures with everyday commodities—Double Gulps, Starbucks—creating a visual commentary on consumption and culture. What materials or processes might contribute to this feeling of strangeness, do you think? Editor: Well, it is clearly oil paint, meticulously rendered, and with such care. That contrasts sharply with the disposable culture it depicts. There's a real tension there, particularly the contrast between these sci-fi figures, designed as spectacle, with the quite mundane PPE they are wearing. Curator: Absolutely. It invites us to consider how we assign value—to cinematic spectacle versus personal protective equipment. And it layers narratives onto each character, right? How the context shapes their identities and narratives, considering both 'Star Wars' mythology and COVID-era anxieties. Editor: And speaking of narrative, the masks become signifiers of compliance, resistance, fear. It’s such a loaded symbol—who wears one, how they wear it. There's a real message about community obligation versus personal freedom embedded there. Each "Star Wars" character is stripped from their iconic role, forced to confront basic public health measures alongside the viewer. It feels incredibly equalizing. Curator: I agree, the act of mass-producing identical protective gear almost erases the individual and iconic value the subjects have and prompts us to contemplate both how consumerism blurs those distinctions, and on the concept of our shared vulnerability. Editor: What strikes me most is the strange tenderness Gross manages to evoke, that humanity persists, even masked. Thank you, this has provided such an important lens to view the art. Curator: I, too, found this insightful, understanding more how art can be used to highlight both the banality and profundity of contemporary culture.