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Art Sent Into Space [ Next ] Beyond painting and literature a handful of space artworks have officially been realized either in space or through the utilization of space technology. These include: 1969: The Moon Museum a small ceramic tile carried on Apollo 12 on which American artists Robert Rauschenberg drew a straight line; Andy Warhol drew a penis; Claus Oldenberg drew the image of Mickey Mouse; and John Chamberlain, Forrest Myers and David Novros all drew geometric designs. (Hoban, 1985)
1971: The Fallen Astronaut - a small figurine by Belgian artist Paul Van Hoeydonk was sent and left on the Moon on Apollo 15 as a part of an astronaut's personal effects. (Hoban, 1985) 1984: Joseph McShane's Get Away Special (GAS) (G-308) which contained a system of spheres used as a materials coating experiment, originally conceived of and viewed as artworks upon return to Earth. McShane stated: "The sculpture "S.P.A.C.E." is not the glass, but the outer space contained within. The sphere serves only to keep the one-g atmosphere from intruding on the space within, creating an anomaly of our common experience; a sculpture to observe and stimulate wonder about the nature and meaning of space, a sculpture to touch and know that only an 1/8" of glass separates one from space." (NASA, 1994)
1986: Vertical Horizons (GAS) (G-481) - Ellery Kurtz, artist & Howard Wishnow, Project Coordinator. An art conservation experiment sent into outer space on board the Space Shuttle Columbia. The experiment was enclosed in a G.A.S. canister from Nasa and placed in the cargo bay on a special mounting. Included in the canister as part of the experiment were 4 original oil paintings by Ellery Kurtz (above) and other artistic materials in order to evaluate the effects of spaceflight on fine art materials. In 1987, French artist Jean-Marc Philippe used a radio telescope to beam thousands of messages into space that were collected on the French Minitel system. He is presently working on a time-capsule art satellite project called "KEO". (Malina. 1990) In 1988, Israeli artist Ezra Orion created a "light sculpture" by aiming a laser at selected points in the Milky Way. (Malina, 1990) 1989 Lowry Burgess's "Boundless Cubic Lunar Aperture" flew on the Space Shuttle as a self-contained "non-scientific payload". This conceptual artwork included holograms and cubes made from all of the elements known to science and water samples from all the world's rivers. The spaceflight was part of the realization of his "Quiet Axis" artwork. (Malina, 1990) In 1991, Austrian artist Richard Kriesche transmitted an interactive video performance called ARTSAT to the cosmonaut crew on board the Mir who return the altered signals after one orbit which then interacted with various devices. This was carried out in the context of the AustroMir mission. (Kriesche. 1993) 1992. The West cigarette company commissioned German artist Andora to paint the outside surface of a Russian Proton rocket with examples of his art and an advertisement for the cigarette company. This vehicle was launched in 1992. (Bunte, 1992) 1993: Arthur Woods' "Cosmic Dancer Sculpture". Launched to the Mir space station, this artwork was designed to investigate both the properties of sculpture in weightlessness and the advantages of integrating art into the living and working environment of the cosmonauts. A video and photographic record were made and returned to Earth for viewing. The sculpture was never returned to Earth and may have been onboard Mir when it was de-orbited. (Woods, 1994) In August of 1994, Spacearc - a digital archive of messages and artworks collected by the Rochester N. Y. University and originally planned for the International Space Year (ISY) was attached to a communications satellite launched on an Atlas rocket. 1995: Ars Ad Astra: The 1st Art Exhibition in Earth Orbit was organized by Arthur Woods and Marco C. Bernasconi of the OURS Foundation in cooperation with the European Space Agency during their EUROMIR'95 mission. 20 original artworks and a laptop computer with 81 digitized art works accompanied German cosmonaut Thomas Reiter on his 6 month mission. The artists with selected works were: Alessandro Bartolozzi (I), Peter Binz (CH), Werner Beyeler (CH), Michael Böhme (D), Marcy Burt Butz (CH) , Michael Carroll (USA), Chris Couvee (NL), Karl Draeger (D), Peter Eickmeyer (D), Marilynn Flynn (UAE), Rudolf Halaczinsky (D), Rudolf Hanke (D), Sarah Kernaghan (IRL), Mark Maxwell (USA), Edward Mendelsohn (GB), Elizabeth Smith (USA), Ruth Trapane (USA), Andrea Thüler (CH), Claudine Varesi (USA), Amy Zofko (USA). The work by Elizabeth Carroll Smith was selected by the cosmonaut crew as their favorite and remained on Mir while the other 19 artworks were returned to Earth. Also included with any list of "art flown in space" is Russian artist/cosmonaut Alexei Leonov (Soviet commander of Apollo-Soyuz - 1975) who carried colored pencils and paper with him to make the first eyewitness sketches of the Earth from space. His artist friend, Andrei Sokolov, probably the most noted space art painter in Russia, has had his painting(s) transported to the Mir station and arranged similar opportunities for the American and Belgian artists William K. Hartmann and Eric Victor and most likely for a few other Russian painters. A painting by artist Pamela Lee and Alexei Leonov were reported to have been carried on the U. S. Space Shuttle. (Roix, 1992) The German artist Charles Wilp has reported that he has had some of his art works taken to the Mir station as well. It is known that the various space agencies sometimes take along art works as memorabilia objects - although this is not widely publicized. June 16, 2000 - As part of their SYSTEM IV, Moving Plates project - a conceptual location sculpture - artists Andreas Baumann (CH) and Eva Wohlgemuthan (AT) fixed an engraved plate to the Cluster satellite FM 6 - Salsa which was placed in orbit after a successful lift off on top of a Soyuz-Fregat launch vehicle. The work would have flown on the maiden voyage of the Ariane 5 which crashed due to a software failure on May 15th 1996.
A sculpture by Pierre Comte called PRIMSA was
taken to the International Space Station by French astronaut Claudie
Haigneré in 2001. The sculpture consisted of 14 small painted
spheres each 2.5 cm in diameter with seven limbs extending from
its axis. It was allowed to float in weightlessness. 2003, On the last flight of the space shuttle Columbia were two art prints "Coming Event" by the German artist Michael Böhme whose work was also included in the 1995 Ars Ad Astra project. June 2, 2003 - the European Space Agency launched the "Mars Express" to the planet Mars. The Mars lander called "The Beagle 2" was to have sent its first signal back to earth letting the project team know it has landed in one piece. This signal which will announce the safe arrival of the spacecraft on the surface of Mars was be a piece of music composed by the pop band Blur. The space probe will also use a piece of modern art by British
artist Damien Hirst to test it's instruments are still working
accurately. Unfortunately the Beagle 2 was lost on its decent to
the surface of Mars. Click to continue: |
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