Elon Musk’s SpaceX Commissioned a Street Artist to Create Indestructible Gold Paintings as Décor for Its First Trip to the International Space Station

Tristan Eaton, a Los Angeles street artist
and designer, has work in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent
collection. But he’s about to join a much more exclusive club of
artists this weekend when SpaceX sends its first manned flight into
outer space with some of his art on board.

Eaton created a series of
indestructible, two-sided gold, brass, and aluminum artworks for
the historic flight, which was rescheduled for Saturday after its
initial May 27 launch date was postponed due to weather. When the
shuttle, called Crew
Dragon, makes it out of
Earth’s atmosphere to the International Space Station (ISS), it
will be the first time in a decade when American astronauts have
gone up, and the first time a privately owned spacecraft takes them
there. 

The street artist will join a
very, very rarified group of
artists including Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, and Trevor
Paglen to actually send their artwork into space.

“As an artist I try to look at
the world with a big picture view,” Eaton wrote on Instagram this
week. “No one gets a bigger view of our world than our brave
astronauts on the ISS.” 

Each plate is double sided—a
gesture meant to “represent the duality of Human Kind, our past and
our future,” according to the artist—and features a variety of
symbols: an outstretched hand and a chimp with its child,
demonstrating nuclear
fission; a suite of
unfurling flowers and a bird in flight; a smiley face and a peace
sign and the stars and stripes of the American
flag. 

“When SpaceX asked me to create
art to join these astronauts in space, I wanted to make something
inspirational,” he explained. “Looking down from space to see all
of Human Kind together on this tiny planet might remind you how
much history and potential we have. Yet we have so much further to
go.”

Each artwork is designed for one
of the five astronauts that will be up at the ISS, including the
two Americans set to go up this weekend. They come in protective
sleeves with a front pocket containing the artist statement and a
greeting to the astronauts. The plates are set to return to Earth
with Crew
Dragon in three-to-four
months.  

Eaton has been making street art
since he was 18 years old. Today, his pop-collage murals adorn
buildings around the world. He made headlines earlier this month
when he unveiled a massive public
painting honoring nurses in Midtown Manhattan.

“With kindness, hope and
science, Human Kind has changed the world many times over,” said
Eaton. “For a better future, we can do it again.”

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Create Indestructible Gold Paintings as Décor for Its First Trip to
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