Immediate Reaction
The reason I chose this piece was because of how fascinated I am with space exploration and how I felt this piece reflects the idea that everything that can go wrong will go wrong. The ruggedness of the sculpture itself and the pained expression of the subject’s face represent a common theme with Matthew Day Jackson’s work. Like many of his other pieces, it represents the exact opposite of happiness and contentedness. It reminds me of how difficult life can be and how nothing ever goes according to plan.
Objective Description
This sculpture immediately seems bulky but in a controlled way, like none of the usable space was wasted. The first thing that pops out is that the sculpture has a face instead of a completed space helmet. The face seems almost as if its unhappy or uncomfortable. The rest of the suit is extremely detailed. The arms and chest seem puffy, like an actual space suit, with little room to move. The legs are detailed in a similar way until a little below the knee, where the space suit becomes a smooth rigid block.
Technical decisions
The sculpture is made of a mix of wood and plastic, and it seems like layers of these materials were put together and then cut away to form the final product. The helmet, face, and chest of the sculpture are extremely detailed, and look like they took up most of the time. The arms and legs seem much simpler and are smoothed out. The hands have almost as much detail as the face and seem like they took as long to design. The work sits on a cube made of both materials, but is part of the sculpture, the legs become the cube slightly below the knee and show a lack of movement for the entire piece.
The Work in the World
Currently, the world is in the age of space exploration, but is limited by science and costs. This work, which depicts an astronaut that is essentially “stuck” goes hand in hand with the lack of our ability to explore space beyond our relative atmosphere. Also, the pained expression on the astronaut’s face, which seems to show that the astronaut is experiencing some type of problem represents all the problems that occur during space travel. The first example of this that comes to mind is the Challenger disaster in 1986, where something that people thought was a small problem ended up causing the deaths of all the astronauts on board.
The Story it Tells
This sculpture to me represents the helplessness of having to deal with a problem but at the same time not being able to do anything about it. The pained expression and the sculptures feet being a solid immovable block go along with this. I came to this conclusion because space travel and any other type of scientific progression can be painstakingly slow processes. People working in these industries often feel stuck or limited by their own knowledge. This sculpture also follows the pattern of having some dark undertone or meaning like many of Jackson’s other works. In a way, this sculpture could represent Jackson’s anger with a lack of technological progression, or simply that he is familiar with feeling stuck or unable to move forward.