Tom Sachs’ NFT Rocket Factory scoops Wallpaper* Design Award 2022
Tom Sachs’ brilliantly imaginative Rocket Factory marks the American artist's foray into the world of NFTs, and scoops ‘Best Rocket Launch’ at this year's Wallpaper* Design Awards 2022

Tom Sachs is art's astro-conceptualist, a Nasa obsessive who has devised and equipped his own bricolage space programme. His New York studio is both rocket workshop and mission control, stitching together spacesuits and knocking up landing modules, perfectly imperfect replicas in steel, plywood and foam that celebrate the design and engineering ‘right stuff’ that has taken man to the moon, if not far beyond. (Because he can, Sachs has gone further. In 2012, he put astronauts on Mars and in 2016 he explored Europa, an ice-gripped moon of Jupiter). His latest exploration of the rocketeer mythos, Rocket Factory, launched him into the art world's next digital dimension, NFTs (non-fungible tokens). Sachs calls the project a ‘trans-dimensional manufacturing plant’ that creates branded NFT rocket parts.
Rocket Factory has created enough virtual inventory of nose cones, bodies and tail assemblies to produce 1,000 different rockets. Each component features one of 30 different colourways and brand identities, with varying degrees of scarcity (87 sets are Chanel branded, 27 McDonald’s and three Hello Kitty). Space travel, after all, is now a fully commercial enterprise. One hundred of the 3,000 components feature stickers, again of varied rarity.
Inside artist Tom Sachs’ Manhattan studio, where he has set up his Rocket Factory NFT project
There are more than 113,000 possible component permutations, and collectors – or the ‘community’ as Sachs has it – can create a multi-brand Frankenrocket or a mono-brand Perfect Rocket. (Sachs admits that the mechanics of his rocket marketplace are arcane to the point of absurdity. ‘It's byzantine and prohibitively complex. It's without a doubt the Achilles’ heel of the whole thing, completely fucked.’)
These components are ‘com-burned’ before the minting of a new single rocket. Collectors can then select Launch Option, which scrambles Sachs and his team to create a physical replica of the digital rocket in the ‘meat world’. The physical rockets are launched and, if at all possible, component parts are recovered and returned to the collector in a custom display box, along with a video of the launch. There have been seven launches so far, including one at Governors Island in New York, another at Flamingo Park baseball stadium in Miami – which Sachs rented out for the occasion – and one on the corner of Grand and Lafayette in SoHo, which Sachs describes as ‘our secret spot’.
Rarity chart, 2021. © Tom Sachs
Owners of a completed rocket NFT or component can become members of the Rocket League and get their own Rocket Factory uniform. Sachs is now looking at establishing a digital Rocket Factory HQ, somewhere in the known or unknown metaverse, with special access clearance for Rocket League members.
Rocket Factory is another expression of Sachs’ fascination with the ambition, engineering, aesthetics and semiotics of the space programme. ‘Rockets are a complex symbol because they're the symbol of our total destruction, but also of our redemption,’ he says. ‘They're the ultimate symbol of science. And there's nothing more prestigious. Rockets hold us to the highest standards of excellence.’
It's also a challenge to the accepted models of art sales, ownership and collecting. NFTs, Sachs argues, represent a new largely unregulated, unprivatised, vital and shared creative space; a new frontier, less mapped, patrolled and controlled by art’s traditional gatekeepers and power brokers. For Sachs, digital space still has utopian promise, and he is determined to both explore and protect that potential. ‘NFT culture is DIY culture,’ he says. ‘Not since 1987, when I was exposed to the American hardcore punk scene, have I felt a greater sense of community and generosity. My strategy is just to do the best work I can in the space. That's all we can do.’
Tom Sachs, Perfect Budweiser Rocket, 2021
Tom Sachs, Perfect Hello Kitty Rocket, 2021
Tom Sachs, Through the Night Softly, 2021
Tom Sachs, Perfect Nikecraft Rocket, 2021
INFORMATION
Wallpaper* Design Awards 2022 winners feature in the February issue of Wallpaper*. Subscribe today!
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
-
Hella Jongerius named Honorary Royal Designer for Industry 2023
The Dutch designer received the Honorary Royal Designer for Industry 2023 accolade alongside creatives from different disciplines
By Rosa Bertoli Published
-
London restaurant and tequila bar Ixchel brings Mexico’s timeless flavour to every sip and bite
On London’s King’s Road, Ixchel offers an unmissable fusion of Mexican art, cuisine and atmosphere
By Sofia de la Cruz Published
-
Matthew M Williams is leaving Givenchy
American designer Matthew M Williams is set to exit his role as creative director of Givenchy after a three-year tenure
By Jack Moss Published
-
New glass sculpture creates a verdant wonderland at Apple’s Cupertino HQ
‘Mirage’ at Apple Park is the work of Zeller & Moye and artist Katie Paterson, a shimmering array of glass columns that snakes through the grounds of the company’s monumental HQ
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Man Ray’s sculptures go on show in New York
‘Man Ray: Other Objects’ opens at Luxembourg + Co, New York, revealing their author’s ‘artistic revolution’
By Hannah Silver Published
-
The best London art exhibitions to see now
Your guide to the best London art exhibitions, as chosen by the Wallpaper* arts desk
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Erwin Wurm’s pop-coloured fantasy land at Yorkshire Sculpture Park
In Erwin Wurm’s first UK museum show, ‘Trap of the Truth’, the artist transforms Yorkshire Sculpture Park into a slightly warped wonderland (10 June 2023 – 28 April 2024)
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith Published
-
Sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro transforms Fendi’s Rome HQ into a theatre of myth and magic
Fendi’s Roman HQ sets the scene for ‘Il Grande Teatro delle Civiltà’ a major show by Italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro, who has also created a one-off edition of the house’s iconic Peekaboo bag. Read more in the July 2023 Issue of Wallpaper*, on newsstands 8 June
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith Published
-
Superflex on building an underwater city for fish: ‘there are different rules down there’
Danish art collective Superflex discuss their ambitious Super Reef, an underwater urbanisation project aiming to restore more than 55 square kilometres of stone reef in Danish seas
By Alice Godwin Published
-
Raffaele Salvoldi stacks hundreds of marble blocks for dazzling Milan installation
For a Milan Design Week 2023 installation, Italian artist Raffaele Salvoldi teams up with marble brand Salvatori to create architectural sculptures comprising hundreds of marble blocks
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith Published
-
John Pawson unveils first-ever sculpture in Tokyo exhibition
At The Mass, Tokyo, British architect John Pawson stages his first solo exhibition in Japan, revealing his first sculpture and a new photography series
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith Published