Immersive Installation By Artist Megan Broadmeadow

Artist Megan Broadmeadow brings the magic of the intergalactic with an immersive installation entitled MERCURY 13.

The work’s departure point is the story of the MERCURY 13, a team of female astronauts who never got the chance to fly into outer space. The voyage Broadmeadow takes us onto is designed to offer a playful disruption of the everyday, whilst fantasising about the forms that inhabit the galaxies that surround us. In 1959, a group of women were privately trained to see if they too could become astronauts like the men from NASA’s Project Mercury programme. 13 of these women passed the training with flying colours, but due to intervention from the government, it was forbidden for them to become astronauts.

MERCURY 13 employs various illusions and trickery to explore the qualities of the cosmos. Broadmeadow introduces this intergalactic journey with a large sculpture surrounded by LED screens featuring 3D eyes.
Mirrors play a key role in the main installation located in the main Gallery Space: as part of the fabric of the installation and as the material for the fantastical costumes created for the videos which form the core of the exhibition.

Broadmeadow has worked with four female dancers for this new work, and each of them have responded to the costumes by incorporating their dance styles into the piece, whilst working within the constraints of the often restrictive costumes.