Space Mama
Space Mama
135 x 120 cm
Oil, Aerosol & Holographic Dust on Canvas
2022
Eight months pregnant, Anna Fischer was given the news that she had been chosen to become one of the first female astronauts. In 1984, just three days after the birth of her daughter, training began. She worked hard to prove she could manage motherhood and work full time. She wore baggy t-shirts and trousers and no make-up or jewellery, so as not to make the wives jealous. While on duty at Capcom, astronauts had to stay on the radio for however long the connection held. Anna would sit for 10 hours at a time, only when the connection was lost running to the restroom to pump milk for her nursing baby at home. Anna was in space for a total of 8 days with no contact to her family, there not being any way of communicating from the shuttle at that time. Typically, a space shuttle will display one star for each of the astronauts on board. Anna’s space shuttle STS-51A wore 6 stars, in honor of Anna’s baby. An inspiration to millions of women and girls throughout the nation, she received numerous letters and autogram requests from little girls. It would be her great honor to one day train some of them to be astronauts themselves. Anna’s daughter never felt neglected, but rather inspired to reach to great heights herself and proud of her mother, the first mother ever in space. After the birth of Anna’s second child, she took a 7 year leave of absence to raise her children. She returned to Nasa, training astronauts and engineering new equipment, and after her recent retirement can look back at the longest career of any astronaut, man or woman.
Created for the exhibition "FEMMOBILITY -- What do dreams know of boundaries? Dynamic woman: groundbreaking past, present and future." in cooperation with Wiener Linien (Vienna Public Transportation) 2022.
