Egni Co-op sends Artist to the Moon
One Small Step for Womankind, One Giant leap for Community Energy.
To celebrate 50 years since the Moon landing, Egni Co-op is going all out to raise awareness of Climate Chaos – and our new all-Wales solar share offer.
In a fun and thought-provoking project, artist-poet Emily Hinshelwood will build a sustainable space capsule, land it on the ‘moon’, and live-stream footage from NASA’s space station for one moon-day (28 earth days) in Pontardawe Arts Centre’s gallery, Oriel Lliw.
Emily says “During the Apollo Mission, astronauts said that the most powerful experience wasn’t actually seeing the moon, but rather seeing the earth from a distance. Seeing our planet as a whole in Space, with its fragile atmosphere, led to a feeling of one-ness and has been termed the ‘overview effect’. Now 50 years later, we need more than ever to see our world as a whole and to work together to build a sustainable future”.
Emily will invite the public to help her turn Oriel Lliw into a moon-scape and build a replica of Tim Peake’s space capsule made from sustainable materials (including locally grown willow, papier mache from recycled paper and Welsh felted wool).
Once the capsule is built, Emily will be based there 24/7 for one lunar daylight day (a fortnight). She will invite visitors to the gallery where they will consider the overview effect, and create visual and written pieces to contribute to an overall exhibition that Emily will curate. She will also interact with the wider Planet Earth via social media and a regular Moon Blog here on Egni website.
This project links to our rolling programme of solar installations and fundraising across Wales as an example of tangible action that people can support to help tackle climate change. Following this, Emily will create an exhibition in the gallery and online, pulling together the artwork and ideas of participants from the whole project.
Egni’s Rosie Gillam says “We are delighted that National Lottery are supporting this project from their Community Grants programme. The project will help raise awareness of climate change and what we can do in Wales by installing solar panels. We look forward to seeing Emily’s spaceship blast off in Pontardawe!”
Come along & take part in her creative luna workshops and find out what happens when you look at home from 200,000 miles away.
Building the Capsule: 22nd September – 1st October
Creative Luna Workshops: 2nd – 16th October
Luna Sharing – free 18th October 6pm
For more information and if you’d like to help Emily build the capsule contact her: emily@myphone.coop
Supported by Egni Co-op installing the largest rollout of community solar energy ever in Wales. From now till March 2020. Join here: www.egni.coop