posted 04-18-2008 07:01 PM               

Stephen Banham, a Melbourne graphic designer and artist, was incredibly moved when he read Animals in Space. Banham designs typefaces. He began to create artworks that merged his feelings about those lost creatures with his passion for typography. His exhibition, Orbit Oblique, is a series of illuminated billboards that pay tribute to animals such as Gordo and Laika.

Many billboards take the form of "lost dog" notices. "Desperately Seeking Gordo," reads one. "Our beloved squirrel monkey." Though the stories are sad, there are absurd undertones. A posting about Goliath, a monkey whose rocket was destroyed 35 seconds after take-off, ends: "Still slim chance that he may have safely ejected in time. Parents worried."

Orbit Oblique is a typographic tribute to the animals lost in space. During the period 1949-1990 the space race between the USA and Russia saw dozens of animals being launched into space in the name of scientific research. These unwilling participants included not just monkeys and dogs but also cats, rats, frogs, worms, spiders, fish and even fruit flies. Many were never seen again.

The exhibition, composed of a series of backlit typographic billboards, also features the public release of Bisque, a typeface that made history by being the first to have its international rights auctioned on e-bay in 2007.

The accompanying publication, Orbit Oblique, is a hand-bound limited edition of 500 and features a letterpress-printed cover. It is one of a very few type samplers produced in Australia for the past several decades.