Seeing Star Wars

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...some museum nerds found themselves so excited about the latest installment of a certain epic space opera that they began to see connections to it everywhere they turned, even in the artworks in their museum’s collection.

If there’s a bright center to the universe, you’re on the planet that it’s farthest from

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Sandro Somare, “Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.”–Albert Camus, The Rebel, 1951. From the series Great Ideas of Western Man., 1967

 

She’s fast enough for you, old man

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George L. K. Morris, Ascending Space, 1946, gilded bronze on stone base, Smithsonian American Art Museum, © 1978, Frelinghuysen Morris Foundation, Museum purchase, 1978.29

 

How long before you make the jump to lightspeed?

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Trevor Paglen, NEMESIS Rocket Body in Orion (Discarded rocket from Satellite Data System Spacecraft; USA 179rb), 2009, chromogenic print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Nion McEvoy, 2012.9.2, © 2009, Trevor Paglen

Trevor Paglen, NEMESIS Rocket Body in Orion (Discarded rocket from Satellite Data System Spacecraft; USA 179rb), 2009

 

That’s no moon

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Toshiko Takaezu, Full Moon, 1978

 

I find your lack of faith disturbing

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John Himmelfarb, Lava Flow (Meeting) Red, 1986

 

Oh, my dear friend, how I’ve missed you

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John Hultberg, The General, 1966

 

Let the hate flow through you

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Jacob Landau, Human nature is originally good. Any evil in it results from the..., 1960

Fulfill your destiny

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Alice Pike Barney, Woman with Red Hood, n.d.

 

May the Force be with you, always!

 

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