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WE COLONISED THE MOON, Enter at Own Risk, 2011. Photo by Brain Slater.

Enter at Own Risk (2011)

When the Apollo crew entered the LEM (lunar exploration module) after walking on the Moon, they smelt. But the Moon - having no atmosphere - does not smell. It's a product of the gritty, tacky dust which covers its surface and attaches easily to spacesuits and astronauts. On re-entering their space craft the Apollo crew carried in the dust, which reacted with oxygen and moisture for the very first time, giving off a scent the men likened to gunpowder.

WE COLONISED THE MOON, Hagen Betzwieser and Sue Corke, work with the concept of false memory, creating mementos from inaccessible places which become - by association - definitive experiences. Their installation recalls the photographic imagery of early astronaut training, where men in spacesuits performed for the press as NASA worked to build momentum for the first Moon landing.

Every weekend throughout the exhibition run, visitors can witness a theatrical ceremony in which a lone astronaut 'gardens' artificial rocks, spraying them with the synthesised scent of the moon, in a space which is neither 'here' nor 'there'. At other times the installation once more becomes the billion year old lunar desert, where the lingering distinctive smell still pollinates those who enter.