Apollo and Selene

This is a revisiting of an artwork originally created in 2019 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo program lunar landing. The artwork features the Apollo Belvedere, a Roman statue rediscovered in the 15th century, and a model of the part of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module that was left behind on Mare Tranquillitatis. The combination of objects from antiquity and recent history creates an unknowable timelessness which merges mythological past with current progress. Selene is the Greek Goddess of the moon, who became Luna in Roman mythology. She is frequently represented with a crown shaped like a crescent moon. In this scene, synecdoche replaces the Goddess for her symbol. By extension through Helios and Artemis, Apollo and Selene are spiritually connected as metaphorical siblings: the sun and the moon. This artwork further explores the artist’s interests in the relationship between the original, the simulation, the physical and the digital. The original sculpture’s hands were missing when it was rediscovered. In the 16th century, a student of Michelangelo, created new hands for the sculpture, interpreting the musculature and pose to create a likely pose. The accuracy of the interpretation is unknowable. The sculpture has been cast, sketched and used as a reference for other artworks countless times, and finally digitally scanned in 3D. It is this 3D model which sits atop Mueo’s virtual sculpture. The physical sources of the digital models are on separate celestial bodies. By connecting the artwork to a non-fungible token, a digital original is created, existing on the InterPlanetary File System. The video is a 1600 x 2080 20 second seamless loop.