Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art

Life on Mars

JUN 14 - SEP 14, 2025

Artists Erika Lynne Hanson and Steven J. Yazzie present works that link physical and metaphysical realities of nature, humanity, geology, and cosmology to position Earth as the endgame.

“Is there life on Mars?” David Bowie asked in his 1971 song that debuted fourteen years after the start of the Space Race and four years before NASA landed on the Martian surface. Since then, science has acknowledged that terraforming an uninhabitable planet like Mars is unachievable and that alternate solar systems holding Earth 2.0 are beyond human reach. Artists Erika Lynne Hanson and Steven J. Yazzie present works that link physical and metaphysical realities of nature, humanity, geology, and cosmology to position Earth as the endgame. Using practices that intermingle traditional craft and Indigenous knowledge with technology and abstraction, the artists illuminate the relative quickness of human gesture to planetary longevity. The exhibition features all new works in various mediums, including textile, sculpture, ceramic, painting, video, and photography.