MOTHER EARTH SISTER MOON
2009
Installation: space suit 10’x45’x26’ (300x1400x800cm), scaffolding, Tyvek, canvas, clear plastic, foam, steel, fiberglass, carpet, white paint, fluorescent lights, chair, milk bar, sound by Masami Tomihisa and Pancerne Rowery, 39 costumes, dimensions variable.
Commissioned by Performa '09, New York.
Mother Earth Sister Moon is a collaborative project between Joanna Malinowska and C.T. Jasper. Focused mainly on the realm of cinema, this work examines how Eastern European science fiction stood out compared to its Western counterparts, how it fueled dreams of the future, spread communist propaganda, and was later used as a tool for anti-government expression. The project investigates how the future was imagined under the Communist regimes of the former Soviet Bloc, exploring the lenses of architecture, music, fashion, and style. It also integrates elements from a diverse range of Eastern Bloc phenomena, including the Soviet space program, sci-fi film and literature, and a journey to the site of the mysterious 1908 explosion over the Tunguska River Valley in central Siberia. Research into these elements manifests itself as a giant reconstruction of the suit worn by the first woman in space, Russian astronaut Valentina Tereshkova. This suit also pays tribute to the sculpture Hon-en katedral, an enormous female figure conceived by Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely for an exhibition at the Moderna Museet of Stockholm in 1966.
Viewers of Mother Earth Sister Moon are invited to enter the sculpture and watch a fashion show accompanied by music from Japanese composer Masami Tomihisa. The fashion show features reconstructions and reinterpretations of 39 design costumes that evoke the Soviet space program and the distinctive aesthetics of Eastern European science fiction films. Another component of the installation are two sets of film and culture magazines published in Poland during the decades leading up to the collapse of the Eastern Bloc. While they may initially seem indistinguishable from the originals, Jasper has altered their content and graphic design, adapting their presentation into a new layout suited for Zachęta, the National Art Gallery. In addition to the magazines, industrial fans intermittently scatter bits of debris throughout the gallery. The final presentation of this work includes a new soundtrack comprising archival recordings from the band Pancerne Rowery, a Polish alternative rock band from the 1980s, along with other found audio fragments.
