A Bonsai Tree Goes to Space…for Art

With Virgin Galactic coming closer to offering commercial flights to space, many people’s dreams are about to come true. But for one artist, they already have. Symbolically, at least.

Last Week, Japanese artist Azuma Makato launched two botanical objects into space from the Black Rock Desert in Nevada as part of his Exobiotanica installation, which focused on “the movement and beauty of plants and flowers suspended in space,” according to the artist. The resulting images and videos are out of this world…literally.

In order to send the bonsai tree and bouquet of spring flowers into the stratosphere, Makato partnered with Sacramento-based aviation team JP Aerospace, which consider itself “America’s Other Space Program,” ato build the metal frames that held the two works throughout their 17-mile journey.

 “The best thing about this project is that space is so foreign to most of us,” John Powell, the founder of JP Aerospace told The New York Times, “so seeing a familiar object like a bouquet of flowers flying above Earth domesticates space, and the idea of traveling into it.”

Armed with a GoPro and Fuji Film cameras, the flora traveled separately for over an hour before their balloons burst and they began their descent back down to earth. But not before capturing some pretty spectacular selfies.

“I always wanted to travel to space,” Makato said after the mission was complete. “This is a dream come true.” [via The New York Times]