Giant cinema will leave you moonstruck

The Lunar Reflection Transmission Technique performance as seen in the Mleiha desert in the United Arab Emirates. Photo / Courtesy of Sharjah Art Foundation

Jetlagged but unable to sleep after a flight from Tokyo to Boston, artist Taro Shinoda stepped outside and was immediately moonstruck.

Looking up at that full moon in 2005 triggered memories from Shinoda's childhood. As a young boy, in the 1960s and early 70s, he spent time with his father in Los Angeles. In the days before the internet or cheap long-distance telephone calls, he thought he could send messages to his mother in Japan by speaking to the moon. He hoped she would receive them when the moon rose for her.

Musing on those early childhood imaginings, Shinoda thought it would be interesting to capture the moon from different cities all over the world. Of course, he's not the first artist to be inspired by the moon. Michelangelo, Stanley Kubrick, Ella Fitzgerald, William Blake, Pink Floyd and photographer Ansel Adams have all paid homage to it; it shines brightly from a corner of one of the world's most famous paintings, Vincent Van Gogh's The Starry Night.

But few have devoted the time — or had the technology — to do what Shinoda has done. He's spent a decade filming the full moon in 12 cities from Istanbul to Limerick, Tokyo to Boston. His final destination saw him capture the super-moon that lit up the skies of Auckland in December when he was here as the McCahon House Trust's International Artist in Residence.

Now Aucklanders can see Lunar Reflection Transmission Technique when it comes to town for just two days as part of next week's Auckland Art Fair. Free day and evening all-ages screenings run with McCahon House representatives hopeful they'll ignite young imaginations.

Projected on a giant screen, Shinoda's film captures the contrast between the colossal form of the moon and us. Audiences see the lunar surface as though landing on it and the work is underpinned by live music courtesy of French drummer and electro-acoustic musician Uriel Barthelemi.

An image from Taro Shinoda's Lunar Reflection Transmission Technique, 2009. Photo / Clements/Howcroft Photography

Shot in black and white, Shinoda built an astronomical telescope out of scrap corrugated cardboard and attached a video camera to it. He says he wanted to craft a "really beautiful film" like those of his favourite Russian film director, Andrei Tarkovsky.

"The more often you watch one of his films, the most you notice," says Shinoda. "You can look at them and understand them in many different ways. I wanted to make a work like that; when you see it, each time you see something different."

He describes it as a cinematic journey which subtlety questions our relationship with nature and reminds us of our interconnectedness with the cosmos.

So, does the moon look the same all over the world?

Yes and no, says Shinoda. There's the obvious difference between the Northern and the Southern Hemisphere (those in the north say here, we see the moon "upside down" because the side that is sunlit seems the opposite from up there).

But in Istanbul, straddling the Bosphorus Strait with the Sea of Marmara on one side and the Black Sea on the other, the light is more reflective so the moon looks like it is swimming in water; in Los Angeles, the air was surprisingly crisp and clear so it looked sharper.

"In each city, it has a slightly different character," says Shinoda, who admits the first-time he filmed in the Southern Hemisphere he forgot to adjust his calculations for the moon being "upside down".

"To watch this video is, for me, just like sitting down in a temple or somewhere to meditate. It's very simple, very minimal but in the minimal things, often you can see so much."

Lowdown:
What: Lunar Reflection Transmission Technique
Where & when: Shed 1, Corbans Estate Arts Centre; May 23 & 24 (screenings are free but tickets are required; live music performed at evening sessions only)