Dimensions: image (left): 125 x 110 mm image (centre): 118 x 93 mm image (right): 207 x 136 mm
Copyright: © Vija Celmins | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Curator: Gazing at Vija Celmins' "Concentric Bearings C" is like peering into a cosmic scrapbook. The triptych presents three distinct images: two starry skies flanking a central image of a plane. A monochrome meditation. Editor: It's undeniably evocative. My first thought? Isolation. That solitary aircraft amidst the vastness, the quiet desperation of stars. The world is so immense and the airplane seems so small in comparison. Curator: Celmins' work often explores detachment through meticulous reproduction. This print, housed at the Tate, speaks to the allure and terror of the unknown. Editor: The plane, though a symbol of human ambition, feels vulnerable here. Is it about the romance of flight or the dark potential of technology? Or, perhaps, the fleeting nature of human existence against the backdrop of infinity? Curator: Perhaps it's both. These mirrored starscapes also suggest a cyclical nature to it all. Editor: Right. And those stark, contrasting blocks of black and white make it feel like a memory, something seen and then half-forgotten, leaving only a feeling of unease. Curator: It's amazing how a piece can be both aesthetically beautiful and emotionally unsettling. Editor: Agreed. It is a stark reminder of how small we really are.
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/celmins-concentric-bearings-c-ar00483
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Concentric Bearings C is a three-colour print using aquatint, drypoint and mezzotint techniques on Rives BFK paper that brings together prints from three separate plates on a single sheet of paper. The smallest, central print shows a grainy image of a falling plane derived from a photograph clipping. This is bordered by two different starry night sky images of varying size. It is the third of four prints, lettered A–D, that make up the Concentric Bearings series (Tate AR00469, AR00482, AR00483, AR00470). It was printed and published by Gemini G.E.L. (Graphic Editions Limited) in Los Angeles in an edition of thirty-four plus six artist’s proofs, in collaboration with master printmakers Kenneth Farley and Doris Simmelink. The copy held by ARTIST ROOMS is artist’s proof number 3/6, inscribed at the bottom left corner of the print, and signed by the artist at the bottom right in pencil.
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