In conjunction with the exhibition Healing, Knowing, Seeing the Body, the Spencer Museum of Art commissioned Houston-based transdisciplinary artist Dario Robleto to create a new work of art: The Aorta of an Archivist. This immersive sound and video installation connects Robleto’s deep and longstanding research on the cosmos, the human heart, and the history of recording. The work is framed by the concept of the “unobservable universe,” an astronomical phenomenon with profound consequences: Because the universe is expanding so quickly, light from the stars rapidly moving away from Earth will no longer be able to reach even our strongest telescopes. The cosmos has presented us with an observational threshold that seems impermeable.

The Aorta of an Archivist reminds us that we have continually crossed boundaries that once seemed impassable, especially with respect to our bodies. Through complex layering and the deliberate confusion of scale, the film prompts viewers to question what is known and unknown, knowable and unknowable—to ask where our observational limits lie.

Our galleries are open to the public Thursday through Sunday from 1–5PM.