Fundamental Elements is an evolving work-in-progress observing humanity at a moment when our horizons extend well beyond Earth, and our future is radically unknown.
Drawing on ancient elemental systems and contemporary physics, the project unfolds as a series of four works conceived for Outer Space. Each piece in the series explores fundamental human questions and is both site-specific and element-specific: the Sun (fire), the Moon (earth\dust), Mars (air\wind), and Low Earth Orbit (water). Rather than treating Space as a neutral backdrop, we strongly feel that at this given point in time, artworks sent to Outer Space must be conceptually and materially connected to those sites.
The first work in the series, Impossible Object, was realized in 2022, when it was launched to Low Earth Orbit and activated aboard the International Space Station during the AX-1 Rakia mission. Using water and microgravity as a medium, the work questioned the subjective perception of our physical reality - and specifically observed shape and form: in the absence of gravity, what is the shape of a piece of sea, or a handful of wave?
The next three works are yet to be realized and sent to the Sun, Moon, and Mars, but the project already extends beyond them through an overarching project that formalizes our larger vision and intention, targeted to be sent to the Moon aboard Astrolab’s FLIP rover in June 2026, in collaboration with the LifeShip Lunar Pyramid project. Here, a unified manifestation of Fundamental Elements sketches our broader intentions, visualizing them through four computational simulations governed by physical principles. Each element is modeled as gas, liquid, solid, or fire, emerging from particle interactions driven by attraction, repulsion, and randomness. These simulations are engraved onto LifeShip’s Lunar Pyramid, which also contains a terrestrial time capsule. Twelve such pyramids were created, each named after a month in the ancient Sumerian lunar calendar - one of humanity’s earliest systems for marking time. One of those pyramids is targeted to travel to the Moon.
Across cultures and centuries, people have turned to elemental frameworks to make sense of the universe’s underlying order. Fundamental Elements revisits these ideas not as nostalgia, but as a way to navigate a future in which what will be is no longer what was. The project is created by an artist and a scientist working together, using both intuition and scientific concepts to confront the unknown - not by attempting to predict it, but by stepping back, looking at ourselves from afar, and asking what remains essential.
At a time when space exploration is often framed in terms of technology, security, and survival, Fundamental Elements insists on the importance of humanism and imagination - on Earth, and far beyond it.
Impossible Object, launched to Low Earth Orbit and activated aboard the International Space Station.
