A Vancouver-based artists is showcasing his latest Star Wars-inspired collection at Tsawwassen Mills as part of Sensea Immersive’s Stargazer: An Immersive Universe exhibit.
Mexican-born David Aste — best known for his pop-culture concepts, street art and graffiti made with various mediums — premiered all 10 pieces from his “Not So Far Way” series last month, marking the first time that any part of the collection has been available to the public and offering visitors the opportunity to buy one of the limited-edition prints directly from the artist himself.
“I’m very humbled to be invited to showcase my artwork at Stargazer,” Aste said in a press release. “Coming from a different country, this entire experience is something I could’ve never imagined. It’s all very exciting, especially since the two themes work so perfectly together.”
Aste’s artwork is characterized by satirically combining pop culture with real places and situations, and in “Not So Far Away” the artist imagines what it would like like if the classic sci-fi saga took place in current day Vancouver instead of a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
“The whole idea for ‘Not So Far Away’ came about very organically from the pages of Reddit,” he said, referring to an image he created and posted online in late September showing a life-sized Imperil Star Destroyer hovering over downtown Vancouver. That image — inspired by Reddit users’ reactions to a previous piece he made showing what the world’s tallest building (the Burj Khalifa in Dubai) would like in downtown Vancouver — sparked numerous requests for more art in a similar vein.
“It’s something the people were genuinely curious to see, and I took into consideration all their comments and suggestions for what came next,” Aste said. “It was also the people that suggested it to be a limited edition run, so that’s what I did. It’s surreal to know that there are people out there who enjoy the work and are willing to get a piece of it.”
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Other locations featured in the series include Pacific Spirit Regional Park (standing in for the forest moon of Endor from Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi), Science World (done up to look like a mini Death Star) and English Bay (with the famed barge that washed up during a storm last fall replaced by a downed Imperial AT-AT Walker and a sign naming the site “Walker Chilling Beach”).
The full series can be viewed at davidaste-store.art. Aste has made 10 prints of each of the 10 pieces and will be showing them until September or he sells out.
“We are pleased to be the first venue for David to show these incredible artworks,” Sensea Immersive co-founder Mick Kelly said in a press release. “His innovative style fits perfectly with our Stargazer exhibition theme, we are glad to support him at no cost, and are sure he will sell out these prints quickly.”
Stargazer: An Immersive Universe is an all-ages “fully immersive visual and sensory-focused exhibit” curated in part by Vancouver’s H.R. MacMillan Space Centre and featuring interactive projections, virtual reality and historically-accurate replicas including a real-size scale version of the Apollo Lunar Module.
The hour-long experience includes a 270-degree immersive room, a detailed timeline of the space race, and numerous replicas of famous rockets, space stations and satellites.
Stargazer also features the Space to Spoon exhibit, a hands-on interactive experience from the Canadian Space agency and the Ingenium Centre showcasing how space-related science, technology and innovation is helping to modernize agriculture, with the aim of encouraging informal science learning among school groups and general audiences alike.
For tickets and info, visit stargazerexhibit.com.
READ MORE: ‘Immersive’ exploration of space coming to Tsawwassen
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