Forrest Myers
USA
Moon Museum
1969
Ceramic tile. Produced in collaboration with Dr. Billy Klüver, Fred D. Waldhauer and Robert N. Merkle.
A collective work with individual contributions by John Chamberlain, David Novros, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol
July 1969: the dream of reaching the Moon comes true.
This same year, Forrest Myers invited a group of artists to create an artwork for our natural satellite.
Robert Rauschenberg drew a straight line; David Novros, a black square; Claes Oldenburg, Mickey Mouse; Andy Warhol expanded his signature into a penis; John Chamberlain drew a template like the ones used to produce paintings done with automobile lacquer and Forrest Myers, a computer drawing.
The drawings were miniaturized on a ceramic tile (1,9 cm x 0,60 cm) by Bell Labs engineers (Billy Klüver, Fred Waldhauer and Robert Merkle). One tile was attached to the LM (Landing Module) of the November 1969 Apollo 12 mission.
Proposing a “museum” for the Moon is creating more than a collective work, it is offering one of the most symbolic cultural construction.
For Forrest Myers, sending a man to the Moon in 1969 was the greatest technological feat of my generation. It was one of the rare instances where evolution could be made visible ie. leaving this planet and stepping onto another celestial body.
Biography
Sculptor, born in Hawaii in 1941, Myers grew up in California. He moved to New York in 1961 where he became a prominent member of this City artistic community. Among his most famous work is The Wall (1973), at the crossroad of Broadway and Houston.