The Icemen Cometh

These citizens of Planet X are like everyone else in all ways but one.

These guys are made of ice. Likewise the trees. How they got that way remains a mystery. Is there a Mr. Freeze on Planet X firing off his cold gun at anything that moves (and a few things that don't)? Where is Batman when you need him?!!

Do You Know the Way to Planet X?

Where is Planet X? And for that matter, what is it?

The search for Planet X began in 1841 as the search for the eighth planet in our solar system and continues today as the search for the
ninth. Planet X was first renamed Neptune (we know where that is), then Vulcan (Urbain Le Verrier's intra-Mercurial planet), then Pluto (a planet no more), then Niburu (Zecharia Sitchin's "12th planet") then Xena (named after the protagonist of the TV series "Xena, Warrior Princess"), and now Tyche (a hypothesized gas giant planet located in the Solar System's Oort cloud). Planet X is not a real planet, but rather a placeholder for planets yet to be found. In a mathematical sense, it is a variable: X = n +1, where n is the number of the last discovered planet.

The View from Planet X

A hazard-fraught, chance meeting of native and non-native species? A traveling optometrist making a house call?

In X09 we meet eye to eye with ...? What has three legs and one eye?

Bossa Nova

Supernova? We think not. More likely an unknown, extraplanetary object exploding as it enters the thin, upper atmosphere of Planet X.

A similar event occurred here on Earth in 1908 over the Tunguska River in Russia. The blast leveled some 80 million trees over an area of 830 square miles.

The Orb Responds

This citizen of Planet X is seen firing his sidearm at a hovering orb. The orb responds with a shudder. Is the orb a vessel or a living thing?

Might Planet Xians not ask the same question about our elephants?

Pussyfooting

Are there cats on Planet X?

Yes, there are. In fact, we have reason to believe that cats, as a species, originate on Planet X.

Hookers on Planet X?

Today's $64 question - are there hookers on Planet X?

The answer, of course, is yes, but only in the seedier neighborhoods.

A more interesting question might be, what is that red ball on the wire coming out of the car? We think it's a lure of some kind. The green women of Planet X seem to be attracted to red baubles, perhaps because the color contrasts so nicely with their skin. And the '57 Cadillac - how'd that get there?

Where did you think they all disappeared to?

Welcome to PLANET X

Davis & Davis - PLANET X opened March 26 at Marx & Zavattero in San Francisco. This photo is entitled X01 and it's not actually in the show. We feature it here, because it was the first photo in the series and we're feeling nostalgic.

From our artists' statement: Toy spacemen of the late 40's and early 50's combine a pre-Sputnik naiveté about space travel with a cold war paranoia about all things alien. Their art deco space suits feature bell jar helmets and back-slung, oxygen tanks; their elaborate ray guns bulge with deadly, high technology. Because they appeared before the dawn of the Space Age, they don't look like the astronauts we know today and seem to recall a future yet to come. For the series PLANET X, we photograph these spacemen as they struggle with robots and other technology, with monsters and aliens, and with themselves in the barren, cratered landscape of Planet X.

Davis & Davis - PLANET X

March 26 - April 23, 2011
Gallery hours: Tues.-Fri. 10:30-5:30, Sat. 11-5

Marx & Zavattero
77 Geary Street, 2nd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94108
(415) 627-9111
www.marxzav.com