Margins:
Lucy McRae
Will she be the first artist on the moon? VAULT spoke to artist Lucy McRae ahead of her first survey at the National Gallery of Victoria, Lucy McRae: Body Architect, about her ambitions for outer space and beyond.
Lucy McRae has defined her art practice as a ‘body architect’, blending the space between art, science, pop culture, business and technology and working collectively for the fast approaching future world. The artist now lives in LA, a city where space travel enters casual conversation and genetic engineering is a regular practical job for the people who sit next to her on the plane. Alongside all of this she is currently the subject of a major survey in Australia.
I read that you wanted to be one of the
artists invited to space. How does this play
into your practice?
I went to SpaceX a couple of years ago and saw shuttles being craned above my head and it is hard to believe that it won’t happen. Elon Musk’s mission for SpaceX is to colonise Mars. NASA is planning to put another person on the moon in 2024, which is the same year that SpaceX is hoping to leave for Mars.
Before making the film The Institute of Isolation (2016), I developed my own astronaut training and for 18 months I did weird high endurance training, imagining that I was going to space. The Institute of Isolation is an observational, fictional documentary exploring the body beyond Earth. It explores the design of physical experiences and interior space as a way to improve human performance; architecture and interior spaces are designed as tools to benefit humans. I’m the protagonist, moving through various sensory chambers, testing my body. .. Subscribe to read this article in full
