Casey Thornton’s Reminisce headed for the moon

A local artwork will be sent to the moon after it was included in the Lunar Codex, launching with SpaceX in 2022. Casey Thornton has lived in Narrogin most of her life, attending Narrogin Senior High School before moving to Perth to study Fine Art at Curtin. Since returning to Narrogin in 2016, the 29-year-old has featured at Narrogin Exhibition Space in 2019 and Vancouver Arts Centre in Albany last year. Her artwork, Reminisce, was originally created for NEXIS but after submitting it to the Shelter exhibition, it was selected for the Lunar Codex program headed by physicist and storyteller Dr Samuel Peralta, who also curated Shelter. “At the time I had absolutely no idea of any possibility that my artwork could find its way into a time capsule destined for the Moon,” Thornton said. “I got the news a couple of weeks ago, and it’s definitely going to take a while to sink in.” In the Lunar Codex, Thornton’s work will be laser-etched into a nickel microfiche, enclosed in a time capsule and sent alongside thousands of other works on a lunar lander. Three time capsules will be sent to the Moon on separate missions as part of NASA’s Artemis program. Thornton said she had tried to capture the “fragile nature of memories kept in the human mind”. “Reminisce is one of two artworks I originally created (exploring) the fragile and very un-archival nature of memories that we keep both on paper and in our minds,” she said. “The fact that this artwork is now set to be part of a lunar archive that will outlast all of us is a very strange and incredible coincidence. “Within the Lunar Codex, there’s a real focus on ... art that reflects the world as we currently see and experience it. “The Lunar Codex is going to be the first project to put the works of women artists on the Moon, and I’m very proud to be among a handful of Australian artists to be included in that.”