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Going through airport security is probably the least exciting part of any holiday, but passing through border control where the officer scanning your luggage is an alien made of cardboard is, well, weird – but also undeniably amusing.
American artist Barminski is back in town with Runway 51, a full-scale airport terminal constructed entirely out of cardboard, detailed with heavy black lines and bright blocks of colour. Following his 2023 Hong Kong show, where a fake toy shop concealed a staged moon-landing conspiracy, this latest exhibition expands on the artist’s world of illusions by turning the familiar routines of air travel into something delightfully absurd.
The journey starts at security, where visitors enter through a cardboard checkpoint overseen by an extraterrestrial transit worker inspecting a conveyor belt of items from Barminski's upcoming Casetify travel collection. From there, the terminal opens out into a departure lounge and airport select shop with hand-painted flight boards, cardboard seating, and mini sculptures of pop culture figures – like Darth Vader, Agent J, and Ripley – sealed into neat collectable souvenirs.
Things then take a peculiar turn in the terminal restroom, where the mirrors above the cardboard sinks replace your reflection with views of deep space, nudging visitors to contemplate their place in the universe. Exploring further into the loo (a sentence we never thought we’d write), you’ll spot a hidden door that leads into a surveillance chamber with control panels and flickering monitors. The video works on display explore a complex web of realities, alternate timelines, and historical fragments, questioning whether extraterrestrials have been living quietly among us, shaping human civilisation for centuries.
Part sci-fi parody, part tongue-in-cheek conspiracy theory, the exhibition replaces the fear of an alien invasion with the oddly reassuring idea that, perhaps, these cosmic visitors were never that far away to begin with. You can check out Barminski’s Runway 51 from now until September 19 at JPS Gallery. Admission is free, and doors are open from 11am to 7pm from Tuesday to Saturday.
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