Monday 2/3/20 - The Moon

I saw a touring exhibit by the UK artist Luke Jerram called Museum of the Moon. It is a 1:500,000 scale of the Moon with 5km represented by each centimetre and used 120dpi Nasa imagery that was heavily detailed. It is a 7 metre in diameter spherical sculpture. In Rochester cathedral it was suspended above the ground in the main hall only a few feet above the ground. In order to get the imagery, the Astrogeology Science Centre created the high resolution imagery from a NASA satellite.

The artist behind the work, Luke Jerram, has previously done multiple works of sculptures, installations and live projects considered extraordinary and inspirational. He was inspired by the tidal variation in Bristol whilst living there leading to the artwork titled 'Tide' linked here: https://www.lukejerram.com/tide/ and his Museum of the Moon installation.

Throughout all of history the Moon has been a reflection for multiple ideas and inspirations such as interpretations of higher powers. Or it has been used as a utility such as a calendar and source of light. Then it has been used as inspirations for artists, writers, scientists and musicians across the world. This has been for a vast array of reasons such as the etheric blue light, the dark side of the moon and other aspects of its constant beauty and mystery. The point of this installation was to provoke different meanings and observations based on the different locations. I sourced this information from the official website for the work: https://my-moon.org/about/

One example of the moon and its influence is the critically acclaimed album by English rock band Pink Floyd, considered to be one of the greatest albums of all time. The name of the album directly referencing the then mysterious 'Dark side of the Moon'. The album overall reflects on the various stages of life, the nature of our experiences and other themes of greed, time, death and mental illness. This was partially because at the time a founding member Syd Barrett had deteriorating health. The music itself was continuous across each side of the album, starting and ending the entire album with a heartbeat to represent the idea of human life. In short it dealt with things that 'make people mad' according to Roger Waters when he proposed the base idea. The name of the album itself is an allusion to Lunacy, possibly referencing the dark side of life and mentality. This aspect of the line 'There's no dark side of the Moon really, matter of fact it's all dark' becomes all the more dismal when you realise this. I gathered most of this information from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Side_of_the_Moon

In Rochester cathedral due to the location the Moon felt connected to its previous connections to higher powers and religion. Visitors to the exhibit who were particularly religious most likely felt a spiritual connection to the work however, on the other hand the usual reaction was a sense of amazement due to the size of it.

Personally I felt a sense of inspiration, not from the idea of the Moon itself or even religion but instead due to the location of the installation. When entering the cathedral the moon was so immediate and felt out of place with the architecture of the building. This is an idea I want to explore in my work, the idea and feeling of being out of place both mentally and physically. I want to use the idea of something so obviously out of place yet almost ignored by its surroundings, a feeling pretty common with those suffering from mental health. I also want to take similar inspirations to that of Pink Floyd with their album Dark side of the Moon as they cover very similar grounds.