Artists’ work to be sent to the moon

WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAW) - The Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art currently has a virtual exhibit titled Facing the Universe: the Cosmos Within. Museum owner David Hummer has a painting in the show, as does local artist Kara Lasiewicz. It, along with other shows from around the world, was chosen to be encapsulated on the moon in late July.

“There’re painters from all over that got into this show, and then this was unbeknown to anyone, that all of a sudden this show along with others was picked to be sent to the moon, so to speak, in digital form on a little SD card,” said Lasiewicz.

The project is the work of physicist and author Dr. Samuel Peralta.

“He’s just this almost entrepreneurial man that just loves art and he wants to encapsulate it somewhere otherworldly so when you look up at the moon it’s like, ‘Oh my god there’s going to be the digital rendition of the girls up there,’” said Lasiewicz.

Her painting is a chaotic mash-up of images of two sisters whose weddings she and her husband Beau photographed. It’s titled Beef Tuff, and the original hangs in the couple’s home.

It’s not the first lunar art time-capsule to be launched, but it is historic.

“This had been done once before by some of the big name people you know today like Andy Warhol. But to have it be the first female artists to get launched, that’s pretty cool,” Lasiewicz said.

Dr. Peralta wants the project to be a message to future explorers that even in this time of war and pandemic and climate change, there is also creativity and beauty and hope.

“It’s nice that there’s something more and we’re able to show other beings or whatever that there is good, and it’s going to continue to be made no matter what,” Lawiewicz said.

The Artists on the Moon project will travel on Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission One, and will have works by 1200 artists and one AI.

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