Arts & Literature

Alien Nation is a major touring exhibition which uses the theme of science fiction to explore ideas of 'difference' and 'otherness' in a vibrant and entertaining way.

Featuring more than 10 international contemporary artists, the exhibition runs at the Sainsbury Centre For Visual Arts (SCVA) at the University Of East Anglia until Sunday, 9 December, 2007.

"The exhibition was very much inspired by the films of the '50s and '60s – those sci-fi films we all know and love which had a number of narratives, but mainly it was that earth was being invaded by these malign aliens," said co-curator Gilane Tawadros.

Much has been written about the connection between the sci-fi cinema of the 1950s and 1960s and the Cold War, where fear of invasion, communism and nuclear war was played out in films that projected the anxieties of the present onto the future.

In recent years, many artists have similarly used science fiction and extra-terrestrial forms as a way of exploring racial difference and as a potent metaphor for the threat of the outsider.

"It [Alien Nation] was inspired by this idea of the outsider and the fear of the outsider, which for those B-movies was a metaphor really for the fear of communism. It was the height of the McCarthy era and the Red Scare, so these films reflected a wider fear in society and culture," said Gilane.

"We were interested in the work of a number of artists who were playing with the genre of science fiction in a really humorous and light-hearted way, but were also saying something quite serious about these times now.

"This show, although very playful and witty, has a serious undercurrent around addressing why we're so fearful and frightened of people who are different," she added

The show encompasses film, sculpture, photography, multi-media installations and 3-D paintings including work from Laylah Ali, David Huffman, Hew Locke, Marepe and Yinka Shonibare MBE.

Shonibare's contribution to Alien Nation is a work called Dysfunctional Family.

"It's one of the stand-out pieces of the show I think," said Gilane.

"His [Shonibare's] family of mother, father and two kids looks perfectly normal, were it not for the fact they were aliens," said Gilane.

"Made from this extraordinary Indonesian fabric that was brought to Africa, what I love about that piece is that kind of double take you do – that sense of familiarity, yet that it's completely alien at the same time," she added.

Film posters

Mingling fact and fiction, science and art, Alien Nation also includes a collection of original sci-fi film posters from the 1950s to the present day, courtesy of The Reel Poster Gallery.

"The film posters are recognised as being works of art in themselves," said Gilane.

"The graphic style is something that is partially reflected in this exhibition, but is reflected in so much graphic design now that we don't notice how much we've been influenced by those really ground-breaking graphic artists who made those posters back in the '50s and '60s," she added.

"I think it's really important that people come and enjoy the show… but I hope like any good film or book you think about some of the questions and issues that are raised," said Gilane.

"It's really a serious question for us today, how we can live with difference? How can we live in communities where we have different beliefs, values, experiences, ways of seeing the world? There are serious questions, but I hope a lot of pleasure to be taken in the artwork themselves," she added.

Alien Nation runs at the SCVA until  Sunday, 9 December, 2007. Admission is £2. The exhibition is one of a number of events throughout Norfolk celebrating Black History Month.

• The concurrent exhibition at the SCVA is Eye Music: Klee, Kandinsky And All That Jazz which explores the fascinating and complex relationship between Western art and music at the beginning of the 20th century.