Commonwealth - david phillips and paul rowley

Commonwealth examines ideas of social progress through re-visiting the Soviet Space program of the 1960's, in particular Yuri Gagarin's orbit of the earth in 1961.
The importance of the space program in shaping perceptions of what is good for a society, uplifting the spirit of a community, is examined in relation to the role of the individual figurehead, selected from the masses to represent the society internationally.

Inspired in part by Hobbes' writings on the Body Politic, and writings on the history of science, the piece examines ideas of governance and community, and the use of division in social models to create order.

A rich collection of visual references are brought together in building the piece; for example, Ambrogio Lorenzetti's Allegories of Good Government: The Effects of Good Government in the City and Country, Soviet mosiac murals, the iconography of the space race, the visual language of progress, and the utopian architectures and designs of the World Fairs of the late 1960s and early 1970's.

Link to Paul Rowley Biog

Link to Gravity Loop

Link to Roadside

Screening