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Fluxface in Space
Notations
Fluxmuseum
- Notations -
interpretive statements by
participating artists
August 2010
A Fluxmuseum International Art Exhibition
Conceived and curated by
Gary A. Bibb
Cecil Touchon
Assistant Curator
Angela Ferrara
Sponsored and archived by
Fluxmuseum - Ft. Worth, TX (USA) © 2010
ad astra per ars -
to the stars thru art
This project and the subsequent exhibitions are dedicated to all who have an adventurous spirit - who dare to dream and explore the unknown. Their commitment and sacrifice builds a rich legacy which inspires and challenges us to reach for the stars.
In particular, Fluxface in Space is dedicated to those artists who responded to the clarion call and chose to participate in this adventure; and to everyone, past, present and future, associated with NASA, the Space Shuttle Program and the international community of space scientists.
Contents:
Foreword by Matthew Rose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i
Preface by Gary A. Bibb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Artists' Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Exhibition Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Foreword
by Matthew Rose
Fluxface In Space: This Is Not A Test
Very few of us have ever had the opportunity to leave the earth and come back. The dream of space travel, an old time fixture of comic book fantasy however, is more common; speculation about the outer limits of our solar system, galaxy and universe is more so, even with a poor man's physics. Time travel necessitates space travel, thanks to Einstein; and black holes, those seemingly evil vacuums of matter and memory but actual pathways through the fabric of space, are part of the picture, too, thanks to Stephen Hawking. While neither Einstein nor Hawking ascended into the heavens, we can be assured that they, like us
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(and Copernicus, Galileo and others), are explorers of the vast emptiness packed around us for billions of light years in all directions. All one had to do as a child was look up into the night sky, point to some flickering light and trace a question through the darkness.
Artists have long desired to bend space to their wills, even if they employed (or disregarded) the standard tools of illusion and perspective or now simply Surrealism. The moral or spiritual questions of artistic projects, however, can be even more oblique than the simplest use (or reference!) to Renaissance spatial tricks. Throughout history, it seems, the essential artistic project has been to dissolve space and time, allow the frames of the support (canvas, pedestal or frame) to fall away,
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leaving the Earth and its messy forces behind. Even for the most obtuse or realistic works. All the great gods hover beyond the clouds, many well above them. For the artist, Heaven more often than not floats in a bucket of paint...or a virgin canvas, an uncarved hunk of stone, an unmarried idea, materialized only in metaphor. Exploration, then, ends up being less about time and space than it does about opening doors with scissors, glue, paint, brush, pencil and paper and penetrating the bizarre physics (or metaphysics) of different and strange worlds, wherever they may be hidden. But most artists know it's very tricky getting away, breaking free of gravity.
The Fluxface in Space project is a door opener, a mind bender. Hitching a ride with NASA's Space Shuttle project,
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artist/curators Cecil Touchon, Gary A. Bibb and Angela Ferrara launched an exhibition of artists' space shots; their art works, along with their faces, sent off into the proverbial final frontier. Selected for one of either two Space missions, images are thrust into space enveloped in some sort of chip or hard drive along with the crew. And while I'm not certain if the faces in space are then pushed out of the capsule to drift in the ether, at least they travelled far enough to gain orbit of something much larger than themselves, or mirrors of themselves. The innovative concept behind Fluxface in Space, is then akin to Einstein's mirror - the one he imagined glancing into while traveling at the speed of light.
One is reminded of the many tests the human space program has taken to resist the Earth's pull and rein in the expansive universe; artists, in much the
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same way, have tested themselves. Here, in this wide-ranging exhibition, one has exactly that: The attempt to rise above if only for a digital blink, into the ether and grasp fully at the vacuum that is space. If art in all its incarnations, is not that attempt, it is nothing.
Matthew Rose, Paris, France
July 25, 2010
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Preface
by Gary A. Bibb
I believe we have entered a new era of the artist/curator where the projects rival or surpass the concepts and proposals of "professional" curators. Artists are beginning to take their place at the vanguard of art once again and are no longer waiting for institutions to endorse or establish trends - or extend invitations to participate in their exhibitions. Granted, artists have been organizing exhibits for nearly as long as the creation of art itself; however, instead of following the traditional pathways, today's Creatives are taking the initiative to connect via the internet and form cross-disciplinary global coalitions. The results have proven that they are conceiving and presenting innovative new projects.
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One of the territories they (we) are exploring is the multi-interpretive, conceptual expression of artists through egalitarian projects; where there is no respecter of reputation, whether famous or obscure. The art is presented in a manner of equal significance by implementing uniformity through visual parameters - the standardization of scale and the set limit of entries per artist. Moreover, the gestalt, the whole compilation of interpretations and thematic variations by the artists, becomes the artwork, or the creative event. Much like collage, where the components are gathered and arranged in a manner to convey a concept, these projects are multi-faceted reflections of a singular theme.
Having the Fluxmuseum sponsor the Fluxface in Space project is a wonderful
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opportunity for an artist/curator because this is not your conventional, institutionalized museum. The Director and founder, Cecil Touchon, who is an accomplished artist, has been very supportive throughout the process and granted me wide latitude and flexibility while designing and implementing this project.
Although one of the primary intentions of the Fluxmuseum is to promote 21st century Fluxus art, it also embraces the fluid ideas of a new interpretation which Cecil Touchon refers to as FluxNexus. If Fluxface in Space were to be categorized it would probably fit within this grouping. FiS (Fluxface in Space) is a hybrid, an integration of many different influences including, but not limited to: Conceptual, Performance, Multi-Media, New Media, Fluxus,
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Mail Art, Pop Art and more, which makes it FluxNexus.
Although the artistic concepts of FluxNexus are mercurial, here is a brief definition as presented by Cecil Touchon.
"Stagnation is Death! FluxNexus is the living vessel of Fluxus. The FluxNexus is an inclusive group of artists, working together to create a global community, coordinate fluxhibitions, fluxoramas, fluxfests, fluxconcerts, fluxpublications and whatever else gets dreamt up along the way. Following along the historic chain from Futurism through Dada, Surrealism and Fluxus; FluxNexus is the inheritor of the past and the shaper of the future."
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The grandeur of the Fluxface in Space project far exceeds a first impression and is more than a collection of space related images. It is actually a well choreographed, coordinated performance by a diverse community of international artists.
A minimal script was drafted to provide focus, uniformity and procedural guidance; however, it also allowed the artists creative flexibility and latitude with their thematic interpretation. While each individual artwork is a well conceived, personal expression and a stand-alone statement; when combined with the other artists' contributions, the whole is indeed greater than the sum of the parts. The entire collection becomes a symphony of diversity; rich in harmony and dissonance, tone, timbre, tempo and filled with accents. The intellectual and emotional expression of each artist has
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its solo moment but then recedes to provide an atmosphere for the next artwork.
The objective of the Fluxface in Space project was to provide an opportunity for global artists to make a statement about the inspiration of space exploration and its corollary to artistic expression. All of the combined effort by the artists and the curators was in preparation of the Grand Event - opening night and the following final performance.
Through the unique opportunity extended by NASA's Face in Space Program, the artists are participating in historical events, which are the final two Space Shuttle missions [late 2010 - early 2011]. The artists' "Self-portrait with Art" image files have been uploaded and will be launched into orbit onboard the spacecrafts. Shuttle Missions STS - 133 and STS - 134 will
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carry the signature autobiographical expressions of the artists into space; where they will rendezvous with the International Space Station and then return to Earth. These art exhibitions in space are the manifestation, the realization, of the original concept and are the actual artistic events - the Grand Performances. The creation of the artworks; along with the extensive preparation, was intended for, and focused upon, those cosmological exhibitions. All of the website portfolios, subsequent exhibitions and any other publications are documentation of the coordinated, conceptual performance by the artists.
______
Watching the moon rise and the stars appear has been a nightly spectacle observed by mankind since the first
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heavenward gaze. This mysterious, captivating and inspiring performance continually beckons us to strain our eyes and our imaginations to perceive the sublime dance across the black velvet stage.
My childhood was spent in the vast openness of the prairie and although the flatlands are in my past, I remember looking into that sea of black ink, filled with flickering pin-lights, and finding myself spellbound and breathless. Have you ever been on open land, or in the middle of the ocean, where the flat horizon completely encircles you? The sky above fills your field of vision - and while lying down, looking up, the sky is so encompassing that you lose your sense of perspective and become certain you are floating in air. Late at night, far from any ambient light and once your eyes adjust to the darkness; you can see
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subtle wonders that stir your soul. In every direction there are countless multitudes of heavenly bodies and if you are quite still, holding your breath, you may catch a faint flickering glimpse of light; but when you look straight at it - it disappears! Or how about the time when you are simply soaking in the midnight experience and suddenly, a flash of light trails across the sky. "Whoa! Did you see that - a shooting star from a meteor shower?!"
A few experiences like that will ignite one's desire to explore the unknown, whether through science or art. The joy of discovery, those magical moments when apparently random bits of information, or visual fragments, come together and "make sense" or "feel right" are what we seekers live for. They are rare and elusive, yet so profound and enriching that the observer is assured
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for an instant that all is well in the universe.
The desire for those moments becomes a lifelong quest for an adventurous spirit. It's not about seeking experiences which are carnal attempts to satisfy a wonder-lust, nor a desire to accumulate information to impress both self and others, but rather a quest for the moment when our aggregate identity is awakened by a glimpse at immutable truth.
My heartfelt intention for the Fluxface in Space project is that it presents an opportunity for the artists and audience alike to again experience a childlike wonder as we gaze into the heavens together and ponder life's great mysteries.
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Awake from thy slumber - O' adventurous one. Rise up, take heart. Let the quest begin anew!
Gary A. Bibb, USA
July 2010
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Participating Artists' Statements
Roberta Faccioli (Germany)
Quote by Karl Popper
"Our dreams and desires change the world."
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Gary A. Bibb (USA)
I've long held the view that artists are explorers and it was that concept which quickly became a basis for the Fluxface in Space project. Astronomers, astronauts and artists alike are pioneers continually engaged in an adventure full of new discoveries and new possibilities.
The artwork I chose to create for this exhibition is composed of found objects recovered while I was first contemplating this project. Before finalizing and releasing the Fluxface in Space call for art, I uploaded my self-portrait to NASA as a
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"test flight" to ensure the procedures were manageable. Once I had conformation of a successful transfer - the countdown for the exhibition began.
Alexandra Holownia (Germany)
Universe is like the art without borders !!!!
Picture: "Fluxface in Space" presents smallpaper plane, can be also paper spacecraft.The black background with red elements around means Universum with red stars. Shows that the space already
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belongs to flying and belongs to Alexandra Fly.
Babette Angel (Australia)
This artwork pays tribute the role animals took in early exploration of space to pave the way for man, where animals are valued less than a human and used in experiments. Monkeys and Chimps were chosen by NASA because of their closeness to human physiology. Baker, a Squirrel Monkey took part in the Bioflight 2 series, travelling in a Jupiter Rocket AM18 on 28 May 1959. Mankind is quick to abuse animals for their own use and exploitation, ill treating farm
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animals for food. Its a pity we do not continue to respect all animals as a spin-off from the space programs and treat them with kindness.
Imma Sicurezza (Italy)
Quote by Albert Einstein, 1954
"A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in Time and Space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest a kind of optical
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delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of Nature in its beauty."
David Symons (UK)
Golden discs, a picture of a man and woman holding hands, letters, music, mirrors, DNA models and the actual space craft that carry
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them are all they will find of our civilization after a million years of drifting through space. What will the life forms that find it make of our culture? Perhaps the space craft will crash on another planet and bacteria will ooze from the wreckage in to a lifeless sea and thrive and the whole cycle will start again?
Virginia Milici (Italy)
Ora finalmente sarò libera di volteggiare nello spazio della mia liberta. Girerò liberà per l'eternità. Unico desiderio: Caro Alieno! Se t'innamori delle mie nudità amami, malasciami libera e ti amerò!
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Now I am finally free to twirl in the space of my freedom. Turns freely for eternity. One wish: Dear Alien! If you love me fall in love [with] my nakedness, but set me free and I will love you!
Matthew Rose (USA) (France)
Since the age of four one summer night staring into the starlit sky, I've always wanted to be launched into space, released from gravity and the specifics of this world. And in that desire, to know without knowing, the consequence of drowning in love. Space Boy, my alter ego - me, now - living out of a
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wet dream orbiting the void of infinite darkness, finally finally finally finds his wings. My guess: This is all physics and God. And after an eternity, I reach for the membrane - the tidy but elusive bag that is the outer limit of space, this expanding joke we're stuck in - I can feel the end of this story, but can't comprehend it. Certainly, I hear voices, technical ones, singing, too. Angels or the whisking of matter into the friendly neighborhood black hole? I have a series of questions written down, ready to ask, and now now now on the very edge of verisimilitude my reasons for traveling this far are clear, and the answers come pitter pat pitter pat pitter pat raining down raining down. To know right place, right time... the big sleep. Am I only a pile of earth connected by tubes and machines monitoring my all? And just before I fall backwards to the infinite beginning, the mise en abyme, I am reassured by voices (my own?) that ... the attempt is all.
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Nicholas Sheram (USA)
"Art is continually required to expand beyond its current capacities and capabilities and ascend to a higher framework, requiring the continual exploration of the self. As the boundaries of our world expand, so do our paramaters of the self."
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Echo June Vincent (USA)
"There is never really one place, but many places, and the space they occupy is only the barest of possibility."
Cecil Touchon (USA)
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Director of the Ontological Museum - ontologicalmuseum.org
Space is a pretty scary place when you start thinking about it very deeply. It is so big and empty and silent. Then to imagine being stuck on a little tiny space ship floating around a planet that you always felt at home on and see it as a little ball slowly spinning around in circles. It must look so fragile from up there and so spectacular and majestic. Then to look around and see that ocean of stars that stretches out at an unimaginable distance. It must be dumbfounding and stressful and yet exhilarating! The emotion of it must be hard to describe. Then to think of how precious life is and to wonder at how we can be so unappreciative of our lives and willing to be so cruel and unfeeling toward each other when our joint existence is so tenuous. I appreciate the space program for what it has done to widen the horizons of those with imagination.
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Karlyn Atkinson Berg (USA)
Like winged birds and angels man now takes to flight. Now man reaches high into to space where colors, meteors, and other beautiful worlds put mankind in awe. I hope that space will be a place to explore, not just astronomy, but like art open our eyes to a universe of beauty.
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Arlene Rabinowitz (South Africa)
Space Exploration - The Universe
In this work I illustrated that our five sense perceptions (sight, hearing, taste smell and touch) are limited in having boundaries on earth. There is a possibility to develop however an added sense a sixth sense. With this sense one can perceive the space around us, the universe as ever expanding.
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Vicky Cull (UK)
I am interested in taking the seemingly ordinary and making it extra-ordinary. I work with found imagery; embellishing, re-working, manipulating and re-constructing these supposedly one-dimensional works to create a multi-faceted and multi-dimensional finished product. For these Fluxface works I have looked at the idea of the Sublime as discussed by Lyotard, the idea that the stars in the sky are finite but the number is so enormous that we cannot, as humans, compute its actuality. I hope that in some way the images discuss this, letting the viewer think of the nearly unfathomable dimensions of space.
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Michael Arata (USA)
The art work I sent is titled "White Hole". Light and airy as opposed to the intense gravity of a Black Hole. This pertains to space exploration as it applies to the principals used in visual art work. Notably the active area between pictorial elements sometimes referred to as negative space or empty space. This White Hole happens to be manifested and personified (eyes) as the OK hand symbol ( "good to go" or "Launch). Possibly extraterrestrial.
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James Needham-Walker (Australia)
Space is Spacey: Flux is Fluxy.
Together they form Psycufaexly.
Space exploration is Psycufaexly.
Psycufaexly
adjective
meaning to approach a task with
the intention of creating an original thought
or new paradigm
origin early 21st century neologism
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Heather Matthew (Australia)
The first page in my primary school atlas always contained pictures of the galaxy, with the names of all the planets and their orbiting rings. The sun was in the top right hand corner, the most important golden jewel in the galaxy, radiating light and inspiration.
It's no wonder that at the age of nine I wanted to be an astronaut, and watched the first mission to the moon with all my school friends on our little black and white television at home the school had a day off to celebrate!
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In my collages I always try to include some postage stamps, these called Terrain and Flight Crew celebrate our ongoing fascination with all things galactic.
Dilar Pereira (Portugal)
Space and art in our lives -
There are numerous aspects to pulling together such an association:
how these universes will be explored and confronted; the centrality of
both in the encounter of self; some integrity problems to address; queries over alterity
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must be efficient in order to scale; the
interaction and visualization must afford both an effective
stimulating and finite negotiation as a means to interrogate their
content meaningfully; and so on ....
Space exploration plays a vital role through highly interactive search of data under conflicting environments. Art provides a data framework in which patterns and implications inherent in the content yields a variety of visualizations and multi-dimensional representations that generate highly individual specific content exploration, meaning and
appreciation direct or intuitive.
Space and art could be pretexts to flourish and expand the horizons of individual and collective knowledge. What sustains a comprehensive meaning of both worlds is the basis of an ancient idea of mimetic aptitude suggesting that the ability to mime is the capacity to realize the Other. And this other
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is a representation of oneself. It corresponds to configurations that ultimately are reached through space exploration and art by the understanding of concepts such as abstraction, scale, arbitrariness or simplification in conjunction to one self.
Nikki Soppelsa (USA)
I was a little kid when I looked through my stepdad's army binocs to see the moon up close for the first time. Craters I could curl up in! I reached out my hand to touch the moon only to find it was still too far away. I've not stopped looking up since. With an
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observatory just one street over, I've been taken to heights, to sights that just mesmerize. I always end with reaching to touch the moon.
Tis Michalous (Greece)
Between mountains and clouds meeting each other, nearby a lake changing colors every day, this is the place visual artist Ioannis MICHALOU(di)S has chosen to have his atelier/lab. This first cloud-hunter follows Centaurs and Nymphs footprints, lies in wait of air streams, grapping pieces of sky ... shaping them, molding them, creating
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"images of forms" and baptizing them as aer( )sculptures.
99.9% air and 0.1% glass is the composition of every aer( )sculpture. In Space Technology, this same composition is named silica aerogel. This immaterial material is the lightest solid on planet Earth - with three Guinness Prizes - and is used also by NASA as an excellent heat insulator for spacecrafts and for stardust collection.
MICHALOU(di)S is the first visual artist worldwide bringing this ethereal material in Art, choosing to hunt with it skies and dreams.
Despite the fact that the space technology required for the creation of the aer( ) sculptures costs inevitably a lot in time and money, the results are always amazing: weightless sculptures having the ability to hover or float opening, this way, new paths
towards a Space Art era where the light
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and immaterial opens a dialog or replace the heavy and voluminous.
Each aer( )sculpture is - at the same time - a "ready made" but also a masterpiece. And that because the inner world of every aer( ) sculpture is different thanks to the microcosmos seen throughout the sculpture: airy clouds, fragments of gold, orbits of planets creating "spaces in between." Light and shadow is one more dialogue opened when a light beam transpierces each blue aer( )sculpture projecting their transparent goldhue shadow in orbit.
If humans are (organic) carbon based representations then every aer( )sculpture is an (inorganic) silica based representation. We know that silica - the natural glass, other than the chemical silicone - is a basic component for the industrial fabrication of data storage devices for computers, cf. Silicon Valley, CA. If we accept now the hypothesis that one day
silica will be the Bank of all human memory
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then we can surely say that every aer( ) sculpture travels also as a Memory Ark.
Past, Present and Future are melted together into an unknown infinity where Space and Time become Logos.
Into an endless beginning ...
(ed. note - footnote references listed on Michalous post:
fluxfaceinspace.blogspot.com)
Cathy Botch (USA)
Dedicated to all at the Space Center for their
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fearless curiosity for explorative adventure, which has engendered milestones in scientific discoveries and inventions in medicine, information, technology, and travel collectively and creatively redesigning our life and our world. Beginning as an attraction, developing into fascination, swelling to a passion for dreaming and wondering "what is out there?", has inspired creativity, ingenuity and possibilities not only in themselves but others. And, We have all benefitted from these self-made challenges fulfilled.
Chuck Mintz (USA)
Being an artist is my third career. My first was engineering. In many ways they are the same.
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They are about dreams. They are the result of problem solving. When you are done, you have made something that did not exist before. When you do it well, everything you include is necessary. There are differences. Engineering paid a lot better. When you made something work, it worked. Did not matter what anyone thought. Well, not much. I need to stop writing. I am starting to miss it.
William Monachesi (Brazil)
THE VOYAGER
Fluxface... Now, with the wings of imagination, the Voyager can fly and through the Art, meet the Brave New World.
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Karl Young (USA)
From Stellar Dreams Above the Middle Kingdom, by Karl Young
Observing natural phenomena, including the night sky, as well as the footprints of birds and animals, patterns of wind on grass and water, may have taken part in the origin of language by our pre-human ancestors. Astral events and cosmology have played a role in poetry, including suggestions for formal innovation - from the earliest records to the present, just as they have in everything from planting crops to the most bluntly practical technology. In the set of poems from which this passage comes, dreams and stars wander in and out of each other, and in and out of poetry of T'ang
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Dynasty China. The couplet in the English language, using the Roman alphabet balances paired lights with meteor showers, as Wai Ying-Wu's poem suggests that the falling of a pine cone indicates that his wife at their distant home shares his insomnia. My poem suggests connections with the origins of language (one of the things that makes us human), of writing, a particularly important example of writing as use a millennium and a third ago on the other side of the world, and the necessity of simultaneously understanding cosmology and ourselves, as the mail art network makes its first baby steps beyond the stratosphere. And doing so at a time when this genre with its roots in the Cold War could use some stellar guidance.
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Miguel Jimenez (Spain)
Miguel Jimenez was born in Avila, Spain in 1953. Major Degree in Arts, studied Art and Architecture in Sevilla and Salamanca. He is a Plastic artist, and lives in Sevilla where he created El Taller de Zenón, an organization devoted to the research and creation of image, with constant presence in Internet by means of its website. Their plastic work, as much in painting as in other techniques has taken to the Visual Poetry. He contributes regularly and he has made his works known in numerous magazines and publications of art and visual poetry in Europe and America,
and he has appeared in several poetic anthologies. Also he usually participates
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in expositions and collective projects of Visual Poetry and Postal Art throughout the world.
Markus Brillert (Germany)
Art is the universal language: on earth and in outer space!
Gianfranco Maletti (Italy)
"The Shuttle enters the legend"
"Lo Shuttle entra nella leggenda"
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Karen A. Miller (USA)
True to an Aquarian childs spirit, the 1960s Apollo Program intrigued me Exotic - Unique - A Journey - A Discovery - A Galactic Event - The Dawning of a New Age Peace for All Mankind. Apollo 11s Columbia/Eagle successfully launched as the first manned lunar landing! Then, on July 20, 1969, the Eagle landed in the Sea of Tranquility! Ah, but, this is where a twist of events occur. According to my creative version: Neil Armstrong & Edwin Buzz Aldrin take their historic walk on the Moon, plant the American Flag, leave a plaque, collect moon rocks, and, do what all good tourists do take pictures. Then, they celebrate the 1st Happy Hour on the Moon with their Kittynaut mate, HappyHourKitty,
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while sipping on Blue Moon Martinis!
"Kittynauts 1st Happy Hour on the Moon" is whimsical postcard-size art created for the FLUXFACE IN SPACE project as a unique, mixed-media collage intuitively repurposing a vintage 1969 postcard featuring an official NASA photograph from the Apollo 11 Mission. Embellishments and uniquely textured moon rocks created with kitty litter, red wine, glitters and adhesives complete the work. An interesting fact, the photograph of the collage was taken on July 20, 2010.
Historically, artwork has always been an integral part of the space program. For instance: Michael Collins sketched Apollo 11s Mission Insignia patch. Also, examples of Apollo 11- related artwork have been featured on such items as stamps and coins. And, now, HappyHourKitty Art is part of it!
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Christopher W. Luhar-Trice (USA)
I look forward to the last two shuttle missions with some degree of sadness - the shuttle program has been a constant throughout most of my life. I remember both the consuming excitement that accompanied the first few years of launches, and the terrible tragedies of the Challenger and Columbia. I've seen shuttle launches transition from major media events to something that scarcely rates a passing mention on the evening news. As the shuttle program ends, I wonder what will be the future of manned space exploration. My piece for this exhibition is a reflection of my long-time fascination with space travel, and with the less remembered
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contributors to our exploration of that great frontier. Laika the dog, a humble stray from Moscows streets, was the Soviet Union's first Cosmonaut. She gave her life in service of our pursuit of the stars, likely dying within the first four orbits due to a cooling system malfunction. It warms my heart to think that I have, in a way, helped her fly again on the final mission of the space shuttle.
Kathy Slamen (Canada)
Smaller stars like our own Sun live and die in relative peace. But the most massive stars become unstable at the end of their lives and explode in a sudden burst that can propel as much as 90% of their material out into space.
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The elements of such stars make during their lives are thus recycled into the cosmos and become part of the raw material available for making new stars, new planets, and perhaps, even people.
Kelly Gorman (USA)
"Collage, Photomontage and the Universe"
Artists and Astronomers physically explore the universe in order to redefine and engage with existence. Just as the universe is constantly expanding, so is our knowledge of life close to us and the existence of space that is far from
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us. Culture may be our local knowledge base, but we must ask ourselves how we define culture and ourselves in relation to the universe as a whole? Redefining our place and role in the universe allows us to understand the source of creation, whether that is the creation of all forms of life or humans creating works of art. This acknowledgement and exploration of existence provides grounding in an understanding of our role in the universe. Collage and photomontage incorporate collections of symbols, metaphors and thoughts of life lived. This juxtaposition of remnants in the creation of art allows for new thoughts and representations to be conveyed in a contemporary way. Elements that appear to be merged together randomly form new waves of thought. They allow us to question the fundamental relationship of object and space in ways we never would have imagined. The universe teaches us that every atom in existence can form and reshape itself to become something wholly
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new in its ever-flowing process. Collage and photomontage can be said to represent this process of retrieving, reusing and reshaping parts that become something all together new.
Janice McDonald (USA)
When I was a kid we used to make space "helmets" out of paper grocery bags. We'd cut curves in the sides so they'd sit on our shoulders. Then we'd cut a big square in the front with a little hole below. We'd carefully tape clear plastic wrap over the square opening, from the inside, so that we could peer out through a shield of sorts. The round
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hole was for breathing and communicating with other neighborhood astronauts. Often we also designed and added insignia, antennae, or other decorations. We were perhaps easily entertained by today's standards, but the helmets provided hours of pretend play and exploration.
I still remember watching a television broadcast of men walk on the moon, while sitting with my grandmother, who had crossed into Oklahoma as a girl in a covered wagon while it was still Indian territory! We were both mesmerized. She had never gotten over being amazed by air travel so this event was beyond anything she could imagine.
I find it interesting that the US President who encouraged our space endeavors, and a whole generation, also loved the arts so much:
"I see little of more importance to the future of our country and of civilization than full
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recognition of the place of the artist. If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him."
John F. Kennedy
Gretchen Biebaum (USA)
My collage/painting techniques very often have an abstract atmosphere of floating designs where the concept of space and time can be perceived. This phenomena may stem from my personal history with my father working at NASA. I have followed the space program since I was a child. My father worked on the moon landing as an engineer at the Lewis Space Laboratory in Cleveland,
Ohio. When we landed on the moon, I was
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so excited that I chipped a tooth eating some food as I was watching television. My father was so immersed in the project that he did not watch the actual event.
