Shiva Nataraja gifted by India

A statue of Shiva Nataraja gifted by India at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland (Photo: Wikipedia)

Voices from L5 - Interview with Liam Ginty
The Story of the Cosmic Dancer (51.:23)

 

Arthur Woods: AstroArtist of the month April 2016. .
Daniela de Paulis, AWB's AstroArts editor interviewing Arthur on his love of astronomy and the arts. (29:43)

Cosmic Dancer Online References

  • LORD OF THE COSMIC DANCE
    How the Indian icon Nataraja danced his way from ancient history to modern physics
     Harish Pullanoor - December 18, 2019
    This idea of the eternal universal dancer has so deeply caught on among physicists and cosmologists that in 1993, an abstract sculpture called Cosmic Dancer, was launched to the Russian Mir space station. Asked about how his artwork, its designer Arthur Woods said:
    "…the (Nataraja) appears very angular yet aesthetic with the four arms outstretched and the raised front leg. Thus my sculpture, which is also very angular could be viewed as a symbolic abstraction of this figure as it dances in the cosmic weightlessness of space…its form is always in a transient state of change…This and the fact that it is free of terrestrial gravity, imparts a supranatural quality normally reserved for gods. Thus this qualitative relationship to the god Shiva can be made. "
    http://bit.ly/2ZgYrlm


  • First, we sent men into space, then we sent art.
    Jess Bauldry - delano.lu - November 16, 2018
    Professor Chris Welch of the International Space University in Strasbourg, whose poetry has been sent into space, showed some of the works of art that have been sent to space at a recent Space Café meeting in Luxembourg.
    http://bit.ly/2DM9rQ6

  • Houston, we have an exhibition in space,This month, art is launched into the final frontier (again)
    Art Agency Partners / Jonathan Griffin - November 8, 2018
    When future generations (quite possibly on other planets) retell the story of the human race in the second half of the 20th century and the first half of the 21st, the exploration of space will surely constitute a major narrative thread.
    http://bit.ly/2DNaUWf

  • Art in Space - Artists may soon be heading to the moon for the first time, but art and space travel have been linked together since the beginning.
    JSTOR Daily - Allison Meier - September 28, 2018
    Artists may soon be heading to the moon for the first time, but art and space travel have been linked together since the beginning.
    http://bit.ly/2DLFX4D

  • The Universe and Art - Space Art
    Marina Bay Sands ArtScience Museum - 2017
    Cosmic Dancer     is the first sculpture designed for a space habitat. It is by Arthur Woods, one of pioneers of Space Art. He has worked extensively with NASA, the European Space Agency and the Russian space program. Cosmic Dancer was sent to the Mir space station in 1993. Freed from the force of gravity which causes any sculpture on Earth be positioned in a certain way, the sculpture could be viewed from any perspective and angle.  
    Website - Space Art

  • Reaching for the sky: artists conquering space
    Lityin Malaw - DigitalArti - March 23, 2017
    In 1993, this funny green and yellow geometrically shaped object whirled in the modules of the MIR station. It was the first sculpture specifically designed for a micro-gravity environment, but its designer Arthur Woods preferred to call it an '"intervention". His work Cosmic Dancer disintegrated with the station, during re-entry into the atmosphere 23 March 2001.
    http://bit.ly/2p6u2GE

  • Voices from L5
    Interview with Liam Ginty / October 2016
    I was contacted by Liam Ginty, the host of the podcast “Voices from L5”, to discuss the Cosmic Dancer project. The far ranging conversation touched on my early astronautical art projects that led up to the realization of the Cosmic Dancer sculpture on the Mir space station and ended with a mention of the current Greater.Earth projects.
    Voices from L5 Podcast:
    thisorbitallife.com/podcast/

  • AstroArtist of the Month - April 2016
    Astronomers Without Borders
    I was the AstroArtist for the month of April 2016. This consisted of four essays about my work and an interview with the program's editor Daniela de Paulis.
    Part 1 - Background
    Part 2 - The OURS Project
    Part 3 - Cosmic Dancer and Ars Ad Astra
    Part 4 - Greater.Earth and Current projects
    Part 5 - Interview with Daniela de Paulis and Marco Bernasconi


  • The Mir Space Station: An Unlikely Place for a Beautiful Art Exhibit
    Elisabeth Howell / Universe Today December 23, 2015
    “The Cosmic Dancer”, as this art exhibition was called, came out to play during a 1993 mission on the Mir space station. It was launched on a Progress supply ship on May 22, 1993.
    http://bit.ly/2p6ErSz

  • Cosmic Dancer, sculpture and weightlessness
    The history of art and technology - February 9, 2015
    Ben Breidenthal
    Hello one and all. I would like to say a thing or two about a piece from the Space chapter in the Wilson book, in the section about Art  Executed in Space and Weightlessness. The piece is called Cosmic Dancer and it was created in 1993 (the year I was born!) by the Swiss/American artist Arthur Woods.
    http://bit.ly/2pQmxEl

  • Free Enterprise
    The Art of Citizen Space Exploration
    University of California Riverside, USA - 2013
    The first contemporary art exhibition in the U.S. to explore implications  of civilian space travel, which represents a major political and  cultural shift away from sponsorship by the federal government and  toward a free-market, private enterprise model.
    http://bit.ly/2p6Fzp9

  • The List: art in space
    Financial Times - August 15, 2014
    A 1kg sculpture by Arthur Woods, “The Cosmic Dancer”, became a fixture in the Russian Mir space station. Its twisted geometric shape was designed to investigate the properties of sculpture in zero gravity.
    http://on.ft.com/2ozsLnt

  • Against Gravitropism: Art and the Joys of Levitation
    Eduardo Kac, Version: 2003 
    http://www.ekac.org/levitation.html

  • Against Gravitropism: Art and the Joys of Levitation
    Eduardo Kac, Tate-in-Space 2002 
    http://www2.tate.org.uk/space/spaceart.htm

  • The Art of Life Is Universal
    Interview with Hans-Arthur Marsiske, spacedaily.com - June 27, 2002 
    http://www.spacedaily.com/news/spaceart-02a.html

  • Leben muss sich ausbreiten - Der Weltraumkünstler Arthur Woods über die kulturelle Bedeutung der Raumfahrt
    Hans-Arthur Marsiske -May 5, .2002 
    http://bit.ly/2oTCIzq

  • Cosmic Art: It's dance Jim, but not as we know it
    The Independent - Judith Palmer 14 February 1998
    Arthur Woods proved that persistence can pay off. In May 1993 he succeeded in sending his geometrical sculpture Cosmic Dancer up to the Mir Space Station. "It wasn't easy," he says. "It took 10 years of constant work and cost me $100,000." A twisting aluminium tube, painted green so that it wouldn't get lost amidst the clutter on Mir, Cosmic Dancer is designed to have numerous viewing perspectives as it floats in weightlessness. "Every sculpture made before has had to deal with gravity," Woods enthuses. "A lot of 3-D art deserves to be floating - it looks far better."
    http://ind.pn/2pP9nVw