Pak Keung Wan

(Drawing Lune in the moonlight)


Lune began in 2009 and grew out from the series Totipotenti. It has become a generative form currently comprising of drawing, animation, projection and installation.

Lune starts with drawing.

I came across a publication by NASA which details through diagrams all the solar eclipses over a 5000 year period from -1999 June 12 to 3000 October 19.

Each drawing stems from the linear path of shadow traversing the Earth’s surface as seen in each diagram. The forms in the Totipotenti series evolve from numerous self-devised templates. Lune is drawn through one of those templates.

Although the NASA publication informed the production of Lune, its underlying themes are shared by Totipotenti. Here, there are correspondences that reveal and explain - the alignment of two (celestial) bodies bringing forth the (re)production of a life. Within these invaginated forms, in its folds, fissures and openings, I have begun to see Lune as some kind of prosthetic paternal activity where drawing, the still and moving image are surrogates through which a life is sustained. Lune is an act of reproduction.

There are 11,898 solar eclipses detailed in NASA’s publication and the 691 drawings which make up this current animation span a mere 299 years.

Lune is ongoing.