The video installation explores the concepts of heroism, tragedy, destiny, and time. The artist justaposes the parallel stories of Christa McAuliffe and Valentina Tereshkova, two women who had very different experiences of space travel. The American McAuliffe died in the Challenger space shuttle explosion in 1986, while the former Soviet factory worker Tereshkova orbited the Earth three times in 1963, becoming the first woman to join a mission in space. Gathered from Redin’s research in books and on the internet, the pictures and footage of the two astronauts are reproduced here simultaneously, in loop, enabling parallels between their gestures, posture, and the events that would transform their lives. Redin invites us to reflect on the way histories are woven, life paths are interpreted, and images can be used to shape our understanding of the world.
