Moons Exhibit in the Williamson Gallery at the ArtCenter College of Design (Photo – Garrett Rowlan).
After walking around the Moons Exhibit in the Williamson Gallery at the ArtCenter College of Design, one is tempted to feel a little like a moon oneself, weaving in and out of the galleries in an orbit of appreciation, looking at pictures, prints, and all manner of artifacts to display ours and other moons.
By Garrett Rowlan
The documents hang on the walls, from the ceiling, are mounted on glass cases and, in one instance, Sarah Perry’s “Impossible Gift,” a Styrofoam moon is impaled on a pitchfork.
The documentation is so varied and spread across time—beginning with a trac from Galileo Galilei from the Caltech Archives, printed in 1610—that one almost believes the moon didn’t exist until the rise of modern technology, beginning with the late Renaissance.
Certainly other moons—those circulating orbs around distant planets—didn’t “exist” until scientific advancement brought them out of obscurity, and in Kevin Gill’s “Ten Moons” (2018) they are arrayed across the wall, ten spheres mounted: five on top and five underneath. Depicted in clear, flattering light, they suggest CEO’s preening in a high boardroom.
Sarah Perry’s “Impossible Gift at the ArtCenter’s Williamson Gallery (Photo – Garrett Rowlan).
In a Philco frame TV-set, located in one corner of the gallery, scientific and technical advancement casts a humorous backward glance at movies from the 1950’s. Playing on a continuous loop, these film excerpts depict the moon as an oxygenated plane of exotic, menacing aliens, unconvincing monsters, and fights where no hats were dislodged. As more was known about outer space, Hollywood had to go outside the solar system to import its monsters. One dividing line in this process of enlightenment was the moon landing—a Life magazine cover from August, 1969 marks this event. Around the corner from the Life cover are other covers, magnified from scientific treatises, including “The Moon Hoax” from 1859, which recalls to mind the cultists who believed the moon landing of a century hence was a televised hoax.
After seeing so many moons in so many ways, one his almost tempted to wonder, how does a moon feel? Is it isolated from its mother planet or fatherland, or does it feel free, swinging in a rainbow loop of its own allotted gravity? Such is the effect of this exhibit, which takes place in a relatively small space and yet feels exhaustive, with an uplift to the viewer, spatial as well as spiritual.
The moon exhibition lasts at the Williamson Gallery until December.
Williamson Gallery 12 - 5 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday 12 - 9 p.m., Friday Closed Mondays and holidays
Carnegie Observatories, Caltech Archives, Kevin Gill, James Griffith, Tim Hawkinson, The Huntington Library, Melanie King, Sarah Perry, Steve Roden, Karley Sullivan, Penelope Umbrico, Mount Wilson Observatory, and Jacqueline Woods contributed to the MOONS exhibition.
From Caltech Archives (Photo – Garrett Rowlan).
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