Umbilical by Christine Reuter

Umbilical
By Christine Reuter
Mixed media: cardboard mailing tube, gold string, cut-out image of Ed White from spacewalk, and paper plate painted blue to represent Earth in the background.

This artwork was submitted to the Museum as a part of its Imagining Spacewalk Tumblr project (http://spacewalk50.tumblr.com/).

The following explanation from Christine was included in the submission: Looking at photos of Ed White’s spacewalk, I was always struck by the gold umbilical—his lifeline back to the Gemini spacecraft. I wanted to create a piece in which the umbilical really stood out. I assembled the key elements I thought the piece needed (image of Ed White dangling from gold string and blue color for Earth at the end of the cardboard mailing tube) and took a series of photos. In this one photo, the string came too close to the camera and created the blurred yet prominent line that brought the piece together.