Why NASA? Why Hand? /  by Mirena Rhee

Moon Hand - detail, 5 x 15 feet, acrylic on paper, 2022.

Why NASA?

I have a blind obsessive love for NASA, I can probably turn on them if they start secretly assassinating small children.

If I think of something cool, if I can think of the best thing in the world that's out there it's probably something that NASA does.

I love art and of course my entire being is devoted to it. But the first artist that had to leave that print on the wall of a cave, first had to figure out how to do it, they probably made a little tool to blow red ochre onto the wall to leave their hand print.
So the first artist was an engineer too and some of the great artists were also engineers like Leonardo and Michelangelo, and I too come from engineering background, architecture.

I come from a family of engineers and tinkerers. But also artists and architects.

To me form has a purpose, and meaning.

I guess I love the beauty of pure awesome engineering and get excited about the robots on Mars.

The funny thing is that one of my first toys when I was little was Lunohod, a remote controlled toy Russian lunar rover that had a really cool way of moving and was blinking and making a lot of noise.

If I remain brave when I get old I imagine I want to die on Mars. Have the red planet reflected in my dying pupils. The ultimate adventure.

But don't be too scared of that morbid paragraph because after all we're all trembling fields and all material things are just a shadow. Like Plato's Shadow on the wall.

Anyway NASA gets themselves into problems that no one else has and solves problems that no one can.

The kind of products and the kind of schemes NASA solves are just, impossible.

Moon Hand in Central Park, September 3rd, 2022

Why Hand?

Because from cave paintings to the famous Michelangelo fresco the hand is a symbol of our civilization. What marks humankind as special is that we are creative. We built our civilization by hand, including these impossible looking skinny skyscrapers in New York City.

Moon Hand, 5 x 15 feet, acrylic on paper, 2022.

Moon Hand, 5 x 15 feet, acrylic on paper, 2022.

Moon Hand is inspired by NASA and celebrates us going to The Moon Once Again. Moon Hand, 5 x 15 feet, acrylic on paper /  by Mirena Rhee

Giant Moon Hand

Giant Moon Hand, 5 x 15 feet, acrylic on paper.

took the Moon Hand to Central Park on Saturday, September 3rd 2022 in expectation of the SLS ‘Moon Rocket’ launch. I hung the Moon Hand over bridges, asked people to hold it over railings for photo ops and waived it off the big rock. In this way I express my obsessive love of NASA and everything Space.

Moon Hand is a Giant Hand Painting inspired by NASA and celebrates us going to The Moon Once Again.

Moon Hand is two-sided, one side is orange red and spells ‘NASA’ and the other side is blue and spells ‘Artemis’.

I took the Moon Hand to Central Park on Saturday, September 3rd 2022 in expectation of the SLS ‘Moon Rocket’ launch. I hung the Moon Hand over bridges, asked people to hold it over railings for photo ops and waived it off the big rock. In this way I express my obsessive love of NASA and everything Space.

#nasa #artemis #nasaartemis Moon Hand is a Giant Hand Painting inspired by NASA and celebrates us going to The Moon Once Again. Moon Hand, 5 x 15 feet, acrylic on paper crated by Mirena Rhee. Moon Hand is a two-sided, one side is orange red and spe

Giant Moon Hand hangs in Central Park on Saturday, September 3rd 2022

I'm painting a Moon Hand in honor of NASA's historic Artemis launch to the Moon /  by Mirena Rhee

Painting the Moon Hand, acrylic on paper, 5 ft wide x 15 ft long.

#nasa #nasaArtemis #gianthands

As part of my hand on the moon project I'm making a giant Moon Hand to commemorate NASA's historic Artemis mission to the Moon.

Moon Hand, acrylic on paper, 5 ft wide x 15 ft long

*Speaking as a space and sci-fi nerd - I am totally stoked. Stayed up late Aug 28 to paint and listen to the mission update. Too bad Aug 29 was scrubbed but it is coming! I also love the worm logo and was itching to paint it.

Why Hand?

Why hand? Because from cave paintings to the famous Michelangelo fresco the hand is a symbol of creativity. What marks humankind as special is that we are creative. We built our civilization by hand.

The Plan

I am about to put the third coat of orange paint, and then i’ll paint the tail. The opposite side will be blue and will spell Artemis, and will be also the palm of the hand.

Awe$$ome Things /  by Mirena Rhee

People often try to engage me about money, and I'm like I just want to make awesome things.

When was the last time you thought that money was awesome if that was the case people will be absolutely grinning and out of their minds happy going into a bank. Never seen a happy face in a bank.

For example when was the last time you paid to get a hug, I bet you think this is disgusting.

You go to an orchard and you pick a fruit and put it in your mouth, it's great. You go to the store and the fruits that you can buy there are rock hard and taste just like painted rocks.

You go to the sea is summer and dip your foot in the water, it's awesome. The paid version is a clawfoot bathtub in a high-rise and I can't remember many happy bathtubs from history.


Giant Hands Augmented Reality in Bryant Park /  by Mirena Rhee

This summer I started a series of Augmented Reality experiments with increasing complexity all over New York City. I have always been fascinated with New York city as an incredible lego construct of lives, architecture and machines. And wanted to flatten it out as a backdrop to artwork.

In this instance the digital art lives in real space, it is a intermediate state of multi-presence that interests me.

New Yorkers often unwittingly participate in all kinds of dreadful experiements conducted by mischievos artists - in this case willingly submit their bodies as 3d props in an Augmented Reality scheme in Bryant Park.

Day's Not Over Yet Augmented Reality Giant Hands Art Installation over Williamsburg Pier at the East River /  by Mirena Rhee

I created these Augmented Reality Art Installations using Maya, Unity 3D with AR foundation. This is an app that runs on Android phones where the user places art objects on real surfaces in real time. I will soon post a completed app that will run on supported Android devices. Apple devices are currently supporting very interesting and sophisticated features and it is possible I will develop the apps for Apple devices in the future. Apple devices feature human occlusion so when people walk in the real space they are able to walk “in front of” or ”behind” the art.

I have always been fascinated with digital landscapes, entirely artificial ephemeral constructs which I used to inhabit as a commercial video games artist for many years. What is even more fascinating is the overlap of digital constructs over the megalopolis reality of New York City. A very exciting combination in my mind.

It really is funny that I use the uber constructs of hyper capitalism like skyscrapers and make them two-dimensional background of my art, they are the doll houses of the Lego city. Augmented Reality seems real and the Cityscape fake.