Cruising The Cosmos During The Cold War
A new exhibition examines the rich and colorful legacy of the Cold War’s fascination with space.
Review by Tanja M. Laden
and gouache, Soviet Union (Collection of Aleksander Smukler)
As a first-generation American whose parents fled communist Yugoslavia in the 1960s, I have a soft spot for the Cold War. I also have a predilection for all things space-related. The Wende Museum’s newest exhibit, Competing Cosmologies: Interpreting the Sky, feels like it has it all: Soviet space dogs, moon rocks, cartoonish propaganda paintings, scene sketches for Soviet science-fiction films, mind-boggling outsider art, Afrofuturism, augmented reality experiences. It’s almost like an exhibit without a beginning or end. Just like space. And possibly, the Cold War.
Here are just a few of the works that stood out the most to me. If you’re in L.A., I encourage you to see the exhibition. And if you aren’t, you can buy the catalog or check out the digital catalog online. Both have an AR experience built right into the cover via a QR code so you can see items from the exhibition floating around you on your phone. (You’ll need to install the Hoverlay app to view it.)
Competing Cosmologies: Interpreting the Sky is on view at the Wende Museum through October 17, 2027.
(Archive of Modern Conflict)
alien being, ca. 1960s-1970s, porcelain, Soviet Ukraine
(Collection of Daniel Wojcik)
(Collection of Wende Museum)
(Adler Planetarium, Chicago, Illinois)
(Collection Archive of Modern Conflict)
(Courtesy of Kent Fine Art, New York)
(Courtesy of Kent Fine Art, New York)
To keep reading, please visit: Trippybroad.
Tanja M. Laden is a Southern California-born, internationally educated writer, editor, researcher, and producer with experience in creating travel and lifestyle content for digital and print media. She is the founder and publisher of Trippybroad, a one-woman literary magazine grown out of Los Angeles, consisting of current adventures, orphaned travel stories, rescued articles, poetry/fiction fragments, and more.
Tanja has scattered her byline across places like Vice, Playboy, Food & Wine, Los Angeles
Times, Juxtapoz, TravelAge West, Backstage, LA Weekly, KCET, and many more. Somewhere
between writing about her visits to countless countries and digging through the archives of High Times, she wrote a commemorative book called Assistance League of Los Angeles: The First 100 Years. She’s also created sponsored content for brands such as Samsung, Microsoft, Sony, Disney, Syfy, Espolòn Tequila, and Beck’s Brewery, among many others.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from Occidental College. In her free time, she volunteers with the Motion Picture & Television Fund (MPTF) and is the Vice President Emeritus of the Cameron Parsons Foundation, Inc. She enjoys nature, animals, classic jazz, and vintage stores, and has a small but mighty antique postcard collection.
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