He will become the first artist to transform Earth’s natural satellite into an art gallery.
Sacha Jafri’s work takes the form of several intertwined hearts accompanied by text. It was created on gold-coated aerospace-grade aluminum.
The artwork was specially designed to withstand extreme conditions, including temperatures ranging from -173°C to 123°C. For Sacha Jafri, “We Rise Together” aims to “reconnect Humanity to: ourselves, each other, our creator, and ultimately to ‘The Soul of the Earth.'”
This ambitious project will be transported to the Moon in the coming months through the US space agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services programme.
NASA launched this in 2018 to send scientific instruments, equipment and spacecraft to the Moon. Spacebit and Astrobotic Technology will take on the task of installing “We Rise Together” on the surface of the celestial body.
“I believe in the future where the symbiosis of art and engineering will form a new wave of space exploration that will become a powerful tool to inspire, educate and give back to humanity,” said Pavlo Tanasyuk, founder of Spacebit.
While art lovers will probably never be able to see “We Rise Together” in the flesh on the Moon’s surface, they can purchase NFTs of the artwork created by Sacha Jafri.
They will be offered for sale at each stage of the “We Rise Together” installation mission. A portion of the proceeds from these NFTs will be donated to charity, according to a press release for the initiative.
Turning space into an art gallery
Sacha Jafri is no stranger to ambitious artistic projects. He notably created a painting on canvas as big as two soccer fields last year, while confined to the Atlantis, The Palm Hotel in Dubai.
This monumental work, entitled “Journey of Humanity,” was then divided into 70 framed works to be auctioned off.
The goal of this project was to raise at least $30 million to fund initiatives related to the health and education of children in poor countries.
However, the British artist is not the first to set out to conquer the universe artistically. In 1969, Forrest Myers decided to send into space a ceramic plate engraved with six contemporary works by Robert Rauschenberg, David Novos, John Chamberlain, Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol and himself.
The American artist tried to get NASA to approve his project many times, but without much success. He then joined forces with a scientific team to make and secretly attach the work of art to a leg of the lunar landing module of the Apollo 12 mission.
Since then, artists such as Ezra Orion, Damien Hirst and Invader have sent or deposited works of art in space, transforming our galaxy into a veritable gallery.