Etonian’s ‘indestructible’ art to be first officially placed on Moon
A BRITISH Etonian will be the first artist to have his work officially placed on the Moon, as part of a £70 billion Nasa programme.
Sacha Jafri, who displayed his first work at Eton school, will have his latest piece set “eternally” on the lunar surface when an Artemis I mission places an “indestructible” engraved plate on the satellite this year.
Mr Jafri, a former schoolmate of the Duke of Cambridge and world record holder for the largest painting, has had to keep his involvement in the mission secret for over a year.
He has described the mission to place artwork on the Moon as a “symbol of human togetherness”.
He explained that the rigours of space constricted his usually colourful palette for the work, titled We Rise Together – with the Light of the Moon, saying: “The Moon is one of the most extreme environments imaginable.
“It’s 123C in the lunar daytime, and that drops to -173C at night.” But he is excited by the idea was that it will be there eternally.
“It’s on a gold-covered aluminium plate, which is pretty much indestructible. I had to use a laser to etch the design. It had to be quite simple, and it couldn’t use colour.
“It is a heat motif, which is what I’m known for, and shows a couple in an embrace. It’s about shared humanity.”
While this is the first work to be officially placed on the Moon, there is speculation that unofficial works have been surreptitiously dumped there by visiting astronauts. Sculptor Forrest Myers has claimed that he was able to get a member of the Apollo 12 crew to sneak on board a tiny ceramic tile featuring drawings by artists including Andy Warhol, which was then left on the Moon, but this secret artwork has not been confirmed by Nasa.
Mr Jafri was approached to work on the mission having created a 17,000 sq ft painting, the £46million The Journey of Humanity, which is the world record for the largest painting ever produced.
His artwork will be carried to the Moon as part of the Artemis programme, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the last mission to the Moon in 1972. The programme is estimated to cost in the region of £70 billion by the time it runs its course in 2024, and is part of Nasa’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services, which buys technology from businessman keen to make their mark in a new space race.
The programme has the backing of Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder.
Amid competition from other nations to further space exploration, with China planning numerous missions in the near future, Mr Jafri has welcomed the ambition of the US to carry artwork to the Moon “with the best intentions”.