Russian artist Alex Shtanuk has launched a crowdfunding campaign to create a giant art installation with 3,350 NASA space blankets.
Simply named The Blanket, it will use more than 40 km of reinforced tape to create a shimmering (мерцающий) mirage larger than a football pitch, with the undulating canvas stretching out (растягивающийся) over 10,000 square metres.
The Moscow-based artist wants to take his installation to this year’s Burning Man festival, where music-lovers will be able to shelter (укрыться, спрятаться) from the Californian sun under The Blanket’s heat-deflecting canopy (навес). The blanket material, which was originally designed by NASA in the 1960s to keep astronauts warm, reflects approximately 97 percent of heat from one side, which has a special coating.
Shtanuk has already unveiled a smaller version of The Blanket, taking a scaled-down (уменьшенный) version of the installation to Russian land art festival Archstoyanie.
“Throughout our life we share the space under the blanket with lovers, friends and family,” he says. “There are no strangers (незнакомцы).”
