Kat Quay
Memory Chain: A Pas de Deux of Artifact
2020
Gold chain
1 x 1.2 cm
status:
Segments of gold chain from a tie clip and a watch act as object memory. The work humanises a portion of early spaceflight history.
Memory Chain humanizes a portion of early spaceflight history. Throughout civilization, stories of origin were passed down orally, with some ultimately being transcribed. As a sculptor, I believe that artifacts are imbued with object memory, and are a part of our societal heritage. Having items that daily bore witness to the development of lunar technologies experience the particular gravity they originally planned for, brings their narrative full circle. Inside a lunar gravity pocket, I included two segments of delicate gold chain, one from my grandfather’s tie clip and the other from my grandmother’s watch- both part of their daily professional dress. My grandfather was an Aerospace Engineer, developing engine and chemical propulsions in support of lunar spacecraft missions. He met my grandmother at NASA, where they both worked and fell in love. During orbit, the chains "danced”- retelling the story of my grandparents’ work romance amidst the Space Race.
Sojourner 2020 (a 1.5U size unit, 100mm x 100mm x 152.4mm ) will be launched into low Earth orbit for about 30 days. It features a three-layer telescoping structure which creates three different “gravities”: zero gravity, lunar gravity, and Martian gravity. Each layer of the structure rotates independently. The top layer remains still in weightlessness, while the middle and bottom layers spin at different speeds to produce centripetal accelerations that mimic lunar gravity and Martian gravity, respectively. Each layer carries 6 pockets that can hold projects.
Technical information
artist
Kat Quay
title
Memory Chain: A Pas de Deux of Artifact
date
2020
medium
Gold chain
dimensions
1 x 1.2 cm
genre
Sculpture
IAAA art style
this work is part of the following collection
Sojourner 2020
artwork COSPAR id
Launch
Space
Return
launch date
7 Mar 2020
launch mission
SpaceX CRS-20 (Dragon), Flacon 9
launch provider
SpaceX
return date
6 April 2020
return vehicle
Dragon CRS-20
return location
Pacific Ocean
launch location
Cape Canaveral, FL, USA
host vehicle
International Space Station
return vehicle COSPAR id
2020-016A
launching state
location
USA
LEO, International Space Station (ISS)
host vehicle COSPAR id
1998-067A
status
Returned
launch vehicle COSPAR id
2020-016A
partners
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