Rachel Libeskind: The Golden Record

June 27, 2025

Frenzel Gallery

Beyond the orbit of Pluto and in the depths of interstellar space, NASA’s Golden Record—mounted on the Voyager spacecraft—continues its silent journey through interstellar space. Nearly fifty years ago, scientists compiled images and audio recordings onto a 12-inch gold-plated copper disc as a hopeful message from Earth to other life forms beyond our solar system. The Golden Record represents a time capsule of life on earth in the late 1970s. From nature sounds, music and greetings in numerous languages, to images of earth and mathematic equations, the Golden Record presents what was considered to be the best examples of humankind’s greatest achievements.

Rachel Libeskind’s exhibition The Golden Record draws inspiration from her research within Auburn University’s special collections and the institution’s historical connection to NASA. In response, Libeskind has created a series of sculptural works that act as a set of contemporary time capsules and meditations on human life, knowledge, and activity. Each sculpture represents both a personal and broad examination of humanity’s shared histories and how the objects that we hold closely and sacred are innate to our individual lineages and stories. The disparate items which comprise each sculpture are a range of pieces that are both personal and found objects collected by Libeskind and represents her vision of ephemera which outlines and reconstructs civilization. The architectural assemblages’ reference sacred spaces such as homes, places of worship and sites of labor, three areas which comprise the daily lives of so many on earth. Libeskind’s works—and the exhibition as a whole—pose anthropological questions of translation and authorship: What can we learn about life on this planet through the objects we hold sacred, the languages in which we tell our stories, and the environments we inhabit? In reflecting on these elements, the work invites us to consider how we come to understand ourselves through what we choose to revere.