Six contemporary artists explore the limits of our ability to image, map and define the universe, with artworks displayed alongside vintage photographs from the NASA space programmes that first brought the breath-taking scale of the cosmos into view.

Through a meticulous layering of star maps, Caroline Corbasson transforms the flat cartography of the sky into a three dimensional simulation of the entire universe. In his Blackout series, Dan Holdsworth presents the Earth as an alien object, turning an astronomical eye back to our own planet. Philippe Pleasants’ poetic skyscapes condense the passage of time as marked out by the motion of the moon, sun and stars. Sophy Rickett resurrects obsolete photographic observations, unearthing the archaeology of astronomy itself. We Colonised the Moon (Sue Corke and Hagen Betzwieser) challenge the authenticity of conventional methods of cartography and classification in lunar exploration.

dark frame / deep field is curated by Marek Kukula, astronomer, writer and broadcaster and Melanie Vandenbrouck, curator and art historian.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated e-catalogue with introductory texts. A brief events programme will be announced shortly, including late views and talks led by the curators and external speakers. The show coincides with the arrival of the NASA space probe New Horizons at Pluto on 14 July 2015.