Humanity is witnessing the most astounding change in ‘being-human’ through cutting edge astronomy and space exploration in the 21st century. ‘The Human Spaceship’ project employs visual art processes to examine these plans through the creation of an experimental installation of scale using extreme perspective, geometry, optical illusions and colour manipulation.

Over five years, Helen Schell has presented a series of related exhibitions and developed an observational document which investigates vision and visual perception in altered gravity conditions (as in long-term human spaceflight). During 2020, she has used this information to create an installation that is made up of many component parts employing drawing and painting techniques. In ‘The Human Spaceship – Off Balance’, she uses multiple optical illusions, destabilising the spectator through images depicting visual vibration similar to space conditions, creating a sensation of being ‘off balance’.

The exhibition has been informed by a research trip to Houston, USA, in 2019. She was invited to be guest artist at Rice University, Texas, meeting with leading human spaceflight scientists at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (planning the Artemis Mission, which has the goal of landing the first woman and next man on the Moon in 2024). This visit also included Rice Space Institute, the Lunar and Interplanetary Institute, Baylor Center for Space Medicine and TRISH (Transitional Research Institute for Space Health). A tour of the University of Houston’s Center for Space Architecture (SICSA) department enabled a dialogue about innovative designs and new materials for ‘off world’ habitations.

Helen Schell was born in the USA and lives in Sunderland, UK. After 12 years of art projects collaborating with space scientists from UK universities, in 2019 she won ESA’s (European Space Agency) Moon 3D Printing competition for a Moon garden design. ‘Moon-shot: Woman on the Moon’ at Ely Cathedral won the IAU100 Moon Landing 50 Prize for Most Innovative Event, worldwide. In November 2019 she was the first artist to be presented with the Sir Arthur Clarke Award for Outreach for her contribution to space exploration.

Schell collaborates with scientists from the Ogden Centre at Durham University, the International Space University, Royal Holloway’s Department of Astrophysics, and University of Kent’s School of Physical Sciences. Currently, she’s working on a science funded solar physics project with Cambridge University, SunSpaceArt. Other projects include the Science Museum, Royal Astronomical Society, and Institute of Physics. She has participated in several international residencies in the USA, Canada, Cuba, Sweden, Belgium, Germany, Cyprus and The Netherlands, as well as many UK residencies. Her solo exhibition, ‘Moon-shot: Woman on the Moon’, was at Norfolk Street Arts, Sunderland, in July-August this year.

Presented as part of the United Nations World Space Week, the theme of which is ‘Satellites improve life’ in 2020, and runs 4-10 October.

The Human Spaceship – Off Balance

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