Comet

In 1991, Vija Celmins created a linoleum cut using her iconic imagery of a night sky. For this work, she carved directly into the block, creating small circles of varying sizes, all with minutely irregular edges. Some circles are closely grouped, others have more space, while others are overlapping so as to create irregular forms. Amongst these ‘dots’ is one seemingly out-of-place mark – a diagonal line with much stronger definition at one end than the other. Looking at the composition abstractly, this line seems incredibly out of place, but amazingly, the mark serves the opposite function when viewed as a figurative image – all those circles become stars and the line becomes a comet.