Voyager (II), 1989

A portable drafting machine, hung from the ceiling in an open position so that thanks to its mechanical elements and measurement instruments it recalls the space shuttle evoked in the title, holds down a sheet of drawing paper, a rolled up colour photograph of a view of the sky, as well as the image of an upside down male figure with outstretched arms. On the ground, in the area corresponding to the drafting machine, is a black men's shoe lying on a partially flipped over blank sheet of drawing paper situated in the middle of a plexiglas sheet.
The shoe – akin to the ceremonial attire or the top hat in other works from the 1980s – represents an indication of the author who, after his bold attempts to touch an intangible absolute dimension, comes crashing to the ground. In the artist's own words: “the shoe is a trace of the author, who in attempting to square the spatial coordinates of the work ends up on Earth”1.
The work is part of a series of four variants, made between 1989 and 2004, which are mainly distinguished by the arrangement on the ground (GPO-0647, GPO-0651, GPO-0762, GPO-0895).

1 G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2005), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2, (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 647 p. 665.