Dario Robleto: The Signal

Multiple bones mounted atop gold rods with butterflies attached to each creating a sort of "forest."
Image Credit
May 12–October 27, 2024
Second floor

Dario Robleto: The Signal highlights the artist’s multiyear exploration of the Golden Record, a gold-plated phonograph recording containing sounds and images selected in the late 1970s by a team at NASA to portray life on Earth to extraterrestrials. Supported by related sculptures and works on paper, the centerpiece of the exhibition is Robleto’s newly commissioned work Ancient Beacons Long for Notice, an immersive, 70-minute film based on a rare and forgotten document—the first audio recording of warfare—which was considered for inclusion on the Golden Record. Ancient Beacons Long for Notice is the third and final installment in a trilogy of video and sound installations that comprise Robleto’s years-long investigation of the scientific, philosophical, and moral tensions of attempts to represent the totality of human life even after humans cease to exist.

Explore Dario Robleto: The Signal from the comfort of your home with our virtual exhibition experience!

Q&A with artist Dario Robleto

Read an exclusive Q&A with artist, writer, and filmmaker Dario Robleto to learn about the inspiration behind his Carter exhibition.

A light-skinned man with short dark hair poses in front of framed photographs on a gallery wall.

Dario Robleto

Sadness from Listening to a Sung Melody, (Le Vallon) Gounod, 1896, 2018

portfolio of 50 prints on Rising Drawing Bristol, photolithographs with transparent base ink, hand-flamed and sooted paper; image brushed with lithotine and lifted from soot, fused in a mild solution of shellac and denatured alcohol

A grayscale print of gray clouds with four white soundwaves and their titles etched into the surface.

Dario Robleto

American Seabed, 2014

fossilized prehistoric whale ear bones (1-10 million years), various butterflies, butterfly antennae made from stretched & pulled audiotape recordings of Bob Dylan’s “Desolation Row,” concrete, ocean water, pigments, coral, brass, steel, Plexiglas

A glass case containing a sculpture made of many accumulated pieces of natural material including whale ear bones and mounted butterflies.

Dario Robleto

Unknown and Solitary Seas (Dreams and Emotions of the 19th Century), 2018

earliest waveform recordings of blood flowing from the heart and in the brain during sleep, dreaming, and various emotional states (1874-96), rendered and 3D printed in brass-plated stainless steel; lacquered maple, and 22k gold leaf

Two steel plates arranged like book pages with various waveforms and their identifications in gold.

Ancient Beacons Long for Notice

(duration: 70 minutes)

Screening times

Sundays: noon • 1:15 p.m. • 2:30 p.m. • 3:45 p.m.

Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays: 10:30 a.m. • 11:45 a.m. • 1 p.m. • 2:15 p.m. • 3:30 p.m.

Thursdays: 10 a.m. • 11:15 a.m. • 12:30 p.m. • 1:45 p.m. • 3 p.m. • 4:15 p.m. • 5:30 p.m. • 6:45 p.m.

Installation Photos

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Past Events

CANCELED - Tea & Tours | Cowboy and Dario Robleto: The Signal

Tuesday, October 8, 3–4:30 p.m.
Two White women at a table in the Carter's Lounge enjoying tea and cakes.

Carter Playdate: Time Capsule

Saturday, September 21, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
An adult and two children make art at a table in the Carter's Atrium.

Itty-Bitty Art: Sun and Moon

Saturday, September 21, 10–11 a.m.
A woman and a young child she is holding on her hip look at art in a Carter gallery.

Carter College Night

Thursday, September 19, 5–8 p.m.
"College Night at the Carter"

Family Workshop: The Golden Record

Saturday, September 7, 2–4 p.m.
A group of people of a variety of ages stand in a Carter gallery looking at interactive artwork.

Toddler Studio: Shoot for the Stars

Saturday, September 7, 11 a.m.–noon
A close-up of a child standing in a Carter gallery holding up a red toy in their hand.

Bookish: Sea of Tranquility

Thursday, August 29, 6–8 p.m.
A group of people reading a book in one of the Carter's galleries.

Art Tales: Over the Moon

Wednesday, July 31, 10 a.m.–noon
"Art Tales, Wednesdays in June and July"

Artist Talk: Dario Robleto

Thursday, June 13, 6–7:30 p.m.
A light-skinned man with short dark hair poses in front of framed photographs on a gallery wall.

Second Thursdays at the Carter: Cosmos & Curiosity

Thursday, June 13, 5–8 p.m.
"Second Thursdays"

Member Preview Days | Dario Robleto: The Signal

Saturday, May 11, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
Multiple bones mounted atop gold rods with butterflies attached to each creating a sort of "forest."
All Exhibitions

Header Image Credit

Dario Robleto (b. 1972), American Seabed (detail), 2014, fossilized prehistoric whale ear bones salvaged from the sea (1 to 10 million years), various butterflies, butterfly antennae made from stretched and pulled audiotape recordings of Bob Dylan’s “Desolation Row,” concrete, ocean water, pigments, coral, brass, steel, Plexiglas, Courtesy of the artist, © Dario Robleto

Dario Robleto: The Signal is organized by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. The film Ancient Beacons Long for Notice is made possible in part by VIA Art Fund. The Carter’s presentation of the exhibition is supported in part by the Alice L. Walton Foundation Temporary Exhibitions Endowment.