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The Apollo Prophecies:
Overview:
The Apollo Prophecies Project has been in development and
production since 2002, when it was started at Toni Morrison's Atelier
Program at Princeton University. Working with 15 students, Kahn/Selesnick
built three major sculptural and architectural installation pieces, The
Mind Rocket, Lunar Explorer and the Moon Cabinet. A revelatory text
was created in collaboration with a brilliant physics graduate student,
Erez Lieberman. This text was altered by Kahn/Selesnick so that American
and Russian Astronauts involved in the 1960's-70's Aquarian lunar
expeditions became Gods for the Edwardian expedition members who were
waiting for them in their Mind Rocket. Initial props and costumes
were drawn and created.
This
installation features a continuous ten inch by thirty-six foot long black
and white panoramic photograph depicting astronauts from the 1960’s
traveling to the moon and back. While on the lunar surface they discover
a lost Edwardian expedition that may or may not be real. It was shot and
assembled on sets or on location with miniature models and live actors. We
are using the narrative techniques of Italian fresco cycles of the early
Renaissance such as Masaccio’s
Brancacci Chapel cycle. The story is told in multiple episodes
featuring the same characters, appearing numerous times, within a single
long panel. The use of this quasi-religious format echoes the
concept of astronauts as gods.
In
addition to the long panoramic photograph there is a mass installation of
small drawings and photographs. These feature Edwardian photographs of
moon rocks, schematic drawings and design notes, portraits of astronauts,
beaked and “debeaked” i.e. Edwardian and Aquarian, ephemera, etc. Also
featured is the visionary text.
Sculptural pieces are
intended as artifacts of the Edwardian expedition. The exhibition at
Pepper Gallery includes a large Edwardian lunar rover constructed of wood,
featuring an expandable McCroskeyen bellows pump, protective metal helmet
hood, pig iron chamber pot, and optional carved yoke for oxen, man, or
horse. Also featured is a long display cabinet containing samples of
lunar rock and dust along with a large pile of cans of Edwardian moon
paste, a devotional palliative/exfolliate with curative properties.
The palliative/exfoliate is not unlike the holy water of our lady the
blackened virgin that bubbles up from the spring of the martyrs in
Czestochowa, duchy of Poland.
View current Boston Globe art review by Cate McQuaid
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