Twinkle twinkle little star, How I wonder what you are? Every child’s first introduction to space and the deep mysteries it holds. Mankind’s fascination with the infinity called space has found expression in many forms — from nursery rhymes to literature, soulful music to space missions, and even as horoscopes that seal your destiny forever. Multitudinous canvases have been dedicated to the portrayal of the miracle called sky. And when the gallery walls were simply not enough, artists reached out to the cosmos to hold their works.
British-Indian artist Anish Kapoor currently has a project in mind — to launch a sculpture in space. Although nothing much has been revealed yet, except that it would involve mirrors, the work would address the question of what would stand up against the vast cosmic space.
Kapoor isn’t the first artist to attempt something like this. Many renowned artists, earlier, have used technology and satellites to firmly place their artworks in space. The very first endeavour was a clandestine one indeed! When the concept of creating a tiny museum on the moon was conceived by sculptor Forrest Myers, he gathered drawings from six artists, including Andy Warhol, and etched them onto a small ceramic wafer to be sent to the moon.
NASA’s response was non-committal, and he soon started looking for a back route. Stumbling upon an engineer who was working on the Apollo 12 lander module, he was able to convince him to place the wafer on it, which was only revealed after the mission. And thus, the Moon Museum was the first ever artwork to travel to the moon in 1969, although it’s unknown if it remains there.
In 1971, Belgian sculptor Paul Van Hoeydonck was commissioned to create a 3.5-inch aluminium sculpture called Fallen Astronaut as a tribute to all those who had lost their lives in their quest to explore space and it was subsequently placed on the moon by the crew of Apollo 15. Artist Trevor Paglen’s lightweight reflective sculpture called Orbital Reflector was launched into space in 2018, purely to be admired from Earth while it orbited for a few months before burning up. Sadly, it was lost in space thanks to President Trump’s government shutdown for 35 days, leading to the engineers losing track of the satellite. The ENOCH project by Tavares Strachan, featuring a sculpture of the first African American astronaut, in the shape of a 24-carat gold urn, was launched into space in 2018 and came back after circling Earth for three years. In 2024, iconic artist Jeff Koons left a series of 125 mini sculptures, titled Moon Phases, on the moon. Each sculpture was inscribed with the name of an influential person from history, including Gandhi and Hippocrates.
These projects that look at outer space as a vast canvas have slowly transformed what was typically a scientific and military zone into an expanse for artistic expressions. Art’s access to the cosmos can surely provide balance by serving as a bridge between humanity and the dark unknown. The twinkling little star that you gaze at every night could very well be a masterpiece from the sky!