The Soviet space station Mir, or a witty approximation of it, is on manuvers in Brooklyn, manned by a crew of weekend cosmonauts under the leadership of the artist Ward Shelley. Mr. Shelley, who recently created an ingenious, Orgone Box- ish crawl-through environment at the Pierogi gallery in Williamsburg, cooked up the idea for the Mir project; but the final product is a collaborative effort, and it suits Smack Mellon's two-story interior to a T.
Composed of connected modules suspended from the ceiling, the piece vaguely resembles a molecular structure. And while it looks to be made largely of wire, tape and colored transparent plastic wrap, it is substantial enough to accommodate several passengers with sleeping quarters, a dining room and a "luxury lounge." Shipboard activity is monitered from the ground by a bank of video screens, some with pretaped films, others with live transmission.
Actually, the whole thing is a sort of luxury