The Space Machine Found on the Moon
A converted tampon and pad dispenser turned into a cosmic art and advice generator challenges all to explore the magic of the menstrual cycle. All the way from the moon, the SMFOTM made its way, magically, to our studio and a local bar’s elevator. Peruse the photos, and read on to find out about this strange machine’s mysterious history:
Get in touch with your cosmic feminine side
The Space Machine Found on the Moon was discovered during the last few moments of the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. After being transported back to earth, the machine was detained and quarantined by the United States government. For ten years it was studied, scanned, probed, and analyzed by scientists and leading scholars. The machine’s contents—rectangular wood-like “equipment” and cylindrical “devices”—possessed an ineffable aura and universal wisdom, to which the Nobel Laureate Astronomer Dr. Patricia Smith attributed the phenomenon of “mystical moon magic”.
In 1982, the government released a statement saying that the Space Machine—although intriguing—posed no immediate threat. The machine was then handed over to religious leaders to analyze the mysterious aforementioned aura. Cardinals and clerics, ministers and mystics quickly pronounced the Space Machine to be demonic. In 1990, the Space Machine became the subject of the world’s first mass exorcism. Over 100 priests and Pentecostal healers gathered around it, chanting and praying in an attempt to cast its “evil lunar spirits” out.
Six years later, the Space Machine and its contents were purchased by a wealthy patron of the arts during a “fire sale” designed to save various religious organizations from impending financial distress. The machine—to him—was not an instrument of terror or Satan, nor did it contain secrets of the universe. He considered the Space Machine, and its contents, an object of pure art in its truest form. It remained in his private collection until his death in 2008, after which the machine was donated to an undisclosed art museum. During a press interview, the curator of this collection (who has, to this day, chosen to remain anonymous) revealed that they were mystified. “We have no idea what it is, what the enigmatic contents mean…” she said. “…or why it was donated to us. We never knew how to display it, or where, or with what other pieces. It’s just been sitting in a storage room in the basement.”
This one-of-a-kind work of art, discovered on the surface of the moon in 1972, had its re-introduction as a display at Modern Art in 2015. It continues to dispense cryptic wood equipment and cylindrical devices that impart a certain mystical moon aura (for a quarter).
In the fall of 2015, the space machine appeared in the elevator of Tellus 360 (the Tellevator), a popular nightlife spot in Lancaster, PA. Libby, and co-creator Jo Davis, were summoned to show visitors how to operate the mysterious machine. Below are some photos.
