Deceitful Moon
dal 20/7/2009 al 30/8/2009
Segnalato da
Tom Dale
William Hogarth
Aleksandra Mir
Karen Russo
Amalia Pica
Sam Porritt
Johannes Vogl
Grant Morrison
Cameron Stewart
Carey Young
Keith Wilson
Tom Morton
20/7/2009
Deceitful Moon
Hayward Project Space, London
Opening 40 years after the Apollo 11 moon landings, the group exhibition does not mark the anniversary of this world-shaping event, but rather commemorates the longstanding doubt that it took place at all. Featuring work by British and international artists, the show explores the moon as a site for misrepresentation and mistrust, touching on a tradition of hoaxes and conspiracy theories that reaches back to at least the 18th century. Artists include: Tom Dale, William Hogarth, Aleksandra Mir, Karen Russo, Amalia Pica, Sam Porritt, Johannes Vogl, Grant Morrison & Cameron Stewart, Carey Young and Keith Wilson.
Featured artists: Tom Dale, William Hogarth, Matthew Day Jackson & David Tompkins, Grant Morrison & Cameron Stewart, Aleksandra Mir, Amalia Pica, Sam Porritt, Karen Russo, Johannes Vogl, Keith Wilson, Carey Young
curated by Tom Morton, Curator at the Hayward Gallery
"Permit me," he continued, "to recount to you briefly how certain ardent spirits, starting on imaginary journeys, have penetrated the secrets of our satellite."
- Jules Verne, From the Earth to the Moon (1865)
Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, Deceitful Moon is an exhibition in the Hayward Gallery Project Space that explores the moon as a site for misinformation, misrepresentation and mistrust. Touching on a long-standing tradition of hoaxes and conspiracy theories that found its first modern expression in the 'Great Moon Hoax' played by The New York Sun in 1835 (in which a series of newspaper articles detailed life on the moon as observed through a powerful telescope) the show, like the tarot card that bears its name, turns on obfuscation and doubt.
Deceitful Moon is, in part, a response to the current vogue for exhibitions marking the anniversary of major events in world history. But rather than commemorating Neil Armstrong's famous 'one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind', it pays tribute to a lingering uncertainty somewhere on the dark side of our cultural imagination as to whether human feet have ever touched the moon's grey, inhospitable surface.
While the Apollo 11 mission was concerned with scientific verification and the glory of a nation and of a species, the works in Deceitful Moon propose speculative 'lunar landings' of a different sort. Satires of social and political control share space with meditations on technological absurdity, perception and misperception, and a very earthbound form of moon-gazing romanticism.
The Hayward Gallery Project Space
The Hayward Gallery Project Space, which opened in summer 2007, showcases both up-and-coming contemporary artists from the UK and internationally, many of whom have not shown in the UK before. Recent exhibitions have included solo presentations of the work of Cyprien Gaillard, Guido van der Werve, Tim Lee and Matthew Darbyshire.
Image: Aleksandra Mir, First Woman on the Moon (detail), 1999. Courtesy the artist and greengrassi, London © The artist 2009
Hayward Gallery Project Space
Southbank Centre Belvedere Road London, SE1 8XX
Opening hours: 10am – 6pm daily.
Admission is free.