The series Autogenic Training explores the psychological and physical extremes of long-duration space travel, focusing on the tools necessary for mental resilience in the face of isolation and the unknown. Through research, I became particularly interested in NASA’s use of autogenic training—a mind-body technique designed to cultivate relaxation and stress reduction through repeated phrases. This practice, used by astronauts to endure prolonged confinement and reliance on life-support systems, became a conceptual foundation for my work. However, its origins reveal a troubling history: developed by a physician associated with Nazi-era eugenics, autogenic training raises critical questions about the ethical lineage of scientific advancements. This tension—between innovation and its problematic past, between self-determination and external control—infuses my work as I reflect on the experience of leaving Earth for an alien world with no possibility of return.

Materially and conceptually, my work mirrors the process of adaptation and survival in extreme environments. Created using pigments derived from hand-pulverized red, green, and grey lava rock, rich earth, and playa sediment—gathered during a three-week residency in the remote Oregon outback—these works engage with the geologic storytelling of both Earth and Mars. The act of grinding materials by hand parallels the labor and sacrifice of exploration, questioning whether destruction is an acceptable price for creation. Images are pressed under immense force, a physical manifestation of the psychological and environmental pressures awaiting those who venture beyond our world. By incorporating mirrored text and autogenic phrases, my work speaks to the distortions of memory and perception, where experience resembles but never fully aligns with expectation. In contemplating the first explorers of Mars, I interrogate the intersection of scientific curiosity, survival, and the profound impact of our past on the future we construct.