What is this bas-relief about?
I, like our customer, are almost the same age. We were both born in the Soviet Union and, like any boys of that time, dreamed of becoming cosmonauts. Remember how these professions were poeticized? The only thing that stopped me from realizing my dream was the assurances of adults about regular physical exercise, without which the goal cannot be achieved.
To my question "why the topic of cosmonautics?", and not Marvel heroes, the customer said that he wanted to instill the right values in children.
And indeed, the topic of space is very relevant now. It has become much closer to us and our children.
Space tourism, new specialties related to the study of matter and life in zero gravity, new technological possibilities for space exploration. The aspirations of mankind through the conquest of new worlds (colonization of the Moon, Mars) to unite in solving a super task, to move away from the value systems of the consumer world.
Yes, our customer found the reference on the Internet. We only implemented it in volume. But I was hooked by the romantic image of a faceless, abstract cosmonaut (not Leonov or Gagarin). The airplane is a reference to childhood. It is a metaphor for what dreams lead to.