The man and the moon: one of the Private Moon series of pictures (Image: Leonid Tishkov/The Arts Catalyst)
As the space race reheats, Republic of the Moon looks at our attitudes to the moon and raises the bigger issues of ownership and colonialism
, Bargehouse, London, 9 January to 2 February; plus accompanying book
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IT COULD hardly be more timely. Less than a month after China鈥檚 Chang鈥檈-3 mission placed a rover on the lunar surface, an art show, Republic of the Moon, sets out its own exploration of our natural satellite. Put together by the Arts Catalyst, an organisation whose remit is 鈥減rovocative, playful, risk-taking鈥� art-science projects, the aim is to encourage public engagement with a field usually dominated by politics, science, business and space enthusiasts.
There is a publication, too: Manifesto for a Republic of the Moon, which works with the show to provide an alternative take on the moon鈥檚 significance, focusing on wit, imagination, small-scale science and the unresolved issue of ownership .
Take the 鈥淢oon Treaty鈥�, which came into force 30 years ago. It was framed to put the moon under international control, but as the moon race reheats, only 15 states have signed up to it. Aside from China鈥檚 rover Yutu (which means 鈥淛ade Rabbit鈥�, a mythical pet of moon goddess Chang鈥檈), India, Japan and South Korea also have projects. And companies are lining up, spurred by mining potential, interest in space tourism and Google鈥檚 Lunar X prize of $20 million to create a privately funded lunar rover.
These competing agendas are cleverly captured by artists Hagen Betzweiser and Sue Corke, who work together under the name WE COLONISED THE MOON. They are artists in residence at the exhibition. Entering their area, you are faced with a blackboard bearing the words: .
Elsewhere in the show, whimsy and imagination feature strongly. In Moon Goose Analogue: Lunar Migration Bird Facility, a film and elaborate control room by artist Agnes Meyer-Brandis, we see how she raised 11 geese, making them think she was their mother, and taking them on walks in a lunar-like landscape.
Similarly imaginative is Joanna Griffin鈥檚 work, Moon Vehicle, created with P. Shreekumar, an astrophysicist at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in Bangalore. This documents a at a top art school in the city. Students used 鈥渋magination鈥� experiments, art, and visits to ISRO to explore the technologies used in India鈥檚 first lunar probe, Chandrayaan-1.
Underlining the importance of other kinds of thinking, Griffin writes in the Manifesto: 鈥淢oon missions risk becoming a transport system whereby [only] certain ideologies and habits of thinking from Earth are projected onto the Moon.鈥� In other words, we are in danger of repeating the mistakes of the colonial era, but on an interplanetary scale.
聯We are in danger of repeating the mistakes of the colonial era, but on an interplanetary scale聰
This problem is crystallised in Liliane Lijn鈥檚 art. Her ongoing Moonmeme work consists of . Such an approach sees the moon as a blank canvas on which, she says, to 鈥渢ransform the meaning of an essential word鈥�.
Translation and transformation are also key to Katie Paterson鈥檚 Earth-Moon-Earth. She turned Beethoven鈥檚 Moonlight Sonata into Morse code, reflected it off the moon and deciphered it back on Earth for a self-playing baby grand piano. The result is recognisable but glitch-ridden because the moon absorbs some information in its shadows. The 鈥渕oon-altered鈥� score turns the gaps into enigmatic intervals and rests.
In Paterson鈥檚 work, the moon is an agent of change. But in Leonid Tishkov鈥檚 Private Moon, it is a fixed point. This set of photos, each coupled with a verse, tells of a relationship between a man who met the moon and stayed with 鈥渉er鈥� for the rest of his life. It is touching, but the images see the moon as alien, empty, passive; the man is the only active force.
Overall, the show is admirable for its attempts to engage the public and for suggesting that when it comes to the moon鈥檚 ownership, narratives of colonialism and gender are never far away. But it remains open to charges of anthropocentrism: as if the moon only matters in how it relates to humanity. The exhibition repeats the logic that gave us anthropogenic climate change, and, for all its emphasis on imagination and wit, fails to offer us an escape route.
