The Lunar Mission Gallery
An artwork inspired by topographical images of the facing and far side of the moon
Look Up at this Our Moon
The peaks and troughs of the moon are shown in colour in this tactile work.
Lines rush and scratch the skin dry green and sandy surface. The uncertain forms of craters, the remnants of volcanic lava flows, and iron-rich plains that span vast distances, unite as two sides of the same terrestrial coin.
The moon seems at once close, yet out of reach. When we look up at its slow yet ever moving path, we can fit its image between the tiny space of our thumb and forefinger. We wonder at its size, its significance.
The moon has a greater dynamic range between it's lowest and highest points as compared with our home world. The East rim of Engel'gardt crater on the Moon's far side is host to its highest elevation at a staggering 10,761 meters (35,305 ft) above the lunar surface's global mean - that is close to two kilometers taller than the summit of Mount Everest.
How high or how low a thing is provides context, but when we see the moon's surface from so far away, we may not appreciate the immense size of its features. Art is a tool that allows the expression of experience. It is not bound by fact, but it can be shaped by it.
As the time taken to spin on its axis is the same as the time it takes the moon to spin around the earth, we only ever see one side of it from our world. The moon becomes our metaphor of things unseen...
