Inertialart

2019: Promised the Moon

Curated by Dr. Ursula.K. Frederick: ANU School of Art & Design: June-July 2019.

How Do You Read Me Through Honeysuckle Now?

This triptych commemorates the former Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station’s role in tracking Apollo 11, transmitting the first television images of Armstrong’s steps on the moon, and ensuring the astronauts’ safe return. Its title is taken from the Apollo 11 air-to-ground mission transcript, as mission control addresses the astronauts on day five of their journey. 

The work uses images sourced from NASA and the National Archives of Australia, extracts from Honeysuckle’s logbook (courtesy John Saxon) and the artist’s photographs of the present-day Station site.

Memorabilia

These items of memorabilia commemorate the role of ACT Tracking Stations and facilities in the first moon landing, while presenting the fiftieth anniversary of the event as an occasion for civic celebration.

A set of postcards imagines Canberra monuments taking on a new look to mark the anniversary (Australian-American memorial image courtesy National Archives of Australia). Patches, stickers and pennant flags feature a Honeysuckle ‘mission patch’ which draws on the colours and structure of the Apollo 11 patch, while reversing its moon-to-earth perspective. The antenna photograph was taken by Honeysuckle’s photographer, Hamish Lindsay, shortly before Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface and is used with his/Colin Mackellar’s kind permission.