Arion Artist Talk: Ala Ebtekar & Kim Stanley Robinson

Arion Press is pleased to host a genre-spanning conversation between artist Ala Ebtekar and celebrated science-fiction novelist Kim Stanley Robinson.

The talk will draw inspiration from Ebtekar's upcoming edition of Isaac Asimov's Nightfall which he is creating as the second King Artist in Residence at Arion Press, developing cyanotype prints during the lunar eclipse on March 13th. Their conversation will explore the work of Asimov and the creative connections across science, nature, and both the literary & visual arts.

Following the talk, please join us for a co-hosted reception at The Interval at Long Now, located directly across from Arion Press.

•••

Ala Ebtekar (b. 1978, Berkeley, CA) has situated his practice as a leveling and collapsing of time and space. His work frequently orchestrates various orbits and cadences of time, bringing forth sculptural and photographic possibilities of the universe and time observing humanity. Exploring time, exposure, and light as both medium and metaphor, he uses sunlight, moonlight, and starlight to create durational works—sometimes taking an entire night to expose—which he views as collaborations with the sun, moon, and stars. Ebtekar, throughout his practice, has employed the tactile traditions and properties of bookmaking, page and illumination in bound manuscripts, and classical training in Iranian coffeehouse painting. His alchemy of combining these legacies weaves into his commitment and work alongside enduring centuries of reclaimed text & image archives, poetry, and translation.His work has been widely exhibited across the globe at institutions such as the British Museum, Xinjiang Biennale, California Biennial, Maraya Art Centre in Sharjah, Honolulu Museum of Art, and the Brooklyn Museum. His works are held in leading public and private collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, British Museum, de Young Fine Arts Museum, Microsoft Art Collection, Devi Art Foundation in India, and Berkeley Art Museum, among others.

Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952, Waukegan, Illinois) is an American science fiction writer. He is the author of more than twenty books, including the international bestselling Mars trilogy, and more recently Red Moon, New York 2140, Aurora, Shaman, Green Earth, and 2312. He was sent to the Antarctic by the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists and Writers’ Program in 1995 and returned in their Antarctic media program in 2016. In 2008 he was named a “Hero of the Environment” by Time magazine. He works with the Sierra Nevada Research Institute, the Clarion Writers’ Workshop, and UC San Diego’s Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination. His work has been translated into 25 languages, and won a dozen awards in five countries, including the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy awards. In 2016 asteroid 72432 was named “Kimrobinson.”

Image credit: Ala Ebtekar "au(ro)ra"

Host or Publisher Arion Press