The SPACE MACHINE FOUND on the MOON was discovered during the last few moments of the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.. Later—in interviews—astronaut Elizabeth Johannson claimed to be the one who spotted it, stating “I’ve always been attracted to shiny things.” 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—presented no terroristic or alien 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, is now on display in the elevator of Tellus 360 (The Tellevator). It continues to dispense cryptic wood equipment and cylindrical devices that impart a certain mystical moon aura (for a quarter).

Exhibition Tour Dates and Locations The exhibition was created by the Modern Art Foundation® (www.itsmodernart.com) and organized for travel by the Triangle Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (TITES). “The Space Machine,” its national tour, and related programs are made possible by the Carlo Rossi Fund. The exhibition was launched at Modern Art in Lancaster, PA, in 2015 and is now trapped inside of an elevator.

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