Artworks from an Indian-origin artist in Singapore are going places.
Pieces of art by Kerala-born Lakshmi Mohanbabu, who moved from Delhi to Singapore in 2001, are now orbiting Earth aboard the International Space Station (ISS) as part of a 64-piece Moon Gallery collection of miniature works by international artists.
She been working on the art project for the past two years in collaboration with the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Cluster (Namic).
The artist said she always wanted to give a message to the world.
Giving an account of her feat, she said the artworks reached the space station on Monday on a cargo craft.
Art pieces will spend the next 10 months as part of a test flight for artists to learn how the different designs and materials perform in the microgravity of space.
The two artworks from Singapore are 3D-printed metal cubes featuring unique patterns with each side measuring 0.98cm.
Designed by Mohanbabu, these are based on the concepts of unity, diversity and complexity in humankind.
The first cube, known as the Cube of Interaction, was prototyped in collaboration with Associate Professor Daniel New from the Singapore Centre for 3D Printing at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), the artist said.
The second cube is known as Structure & Reflectance. It features four unique faces that were made by changing the crystal orientation of steel during the 3D printing process.