By Jean Dizzy Jr.
On September 15, 2017, it is decreed and ordered that the life of the great Cassini will come to an end and, like any great Italian opera, there will a lot of black, flowers and mourners. Who is this Cassini you might ask? Cassini is not human, but in this technological age, it’s nevertheless a being. Cassini is a spacecraft that was launched two decades ago, on October 15, 1997, by NASA, on a billion-mile adventure from Earth to Saturn. The spacecraft was named after the astronomer Giovanni Cassini, who had discovered Saturn’s moons and the gaps between its rings. A smaller spacecraft, the Huygens prober, was passengered on board. The Huygens probe eventually split off and landed on the moon Titan sometime around July 2004. Like Italian leading men Cassini’s fight was smooth and all of his instruments worked and, unlike Italian movie idols, Cassini rarely acted up.
NASA has no trips planned to Saturn and its mysterious ringlets. It’s the end of a great human adventure to that planet. The passing of Cassini has not gone unnoticed by the art community. Con Artist, the New York-based collective on Ludlow Street in New York City, has planned a themed show, “Good Bye Cassini” around the spacecraft’s demise. Con Artist promises a stellar group show featuring artists who have moved to “outerspace.” On view September 11–15. Gallery Party: Wednesday, September 13. Con Artist Collective & Gallery, 119 Ludlow Street, New York, New York 10002.
