Moonage Art Dreams

Before a scarcity of real estate--or similar physical limitations--in the 'first life' began driving artists to explore the possibilities of Second Life, humankind had long projected its spatial fantasies onto the moon. With this bit of history in mind, the collaborative duo of Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese are staging Crater New York: A Lunar Drawing Contest at Manhattan's Location One gallery, now through September 26th. Taking its title from the career-making show of emerging artists 'Greater New York,' the event is a drawing contest in which artists and non-artists alike are invited to sketch a model installation of the moon by hand or using illustration software. Entries will be hung in the gallery for the duration of the project and be judged by an as-yet unannounced panel of 'artists, critics, real estate developers, and celebrities.' Winning representations of the heavenly body will be announced on the final day of the exhibition, and the artists behind them will receive a deed to a plot of land on the lunar surface. Thirteen drawing challenges--corresponding to the 13 annual lunar cycles--will be held while the project is on view, and in acknowledgment of the new territory inspiring fantasies of uncharted space, each of the proceedings and the work created will be simultaneously on view in Second Life at Richard Minsky's SLART gallery.