Amélie Bouvier’s series 'Potentially Hazardous Portraits' takes its name from a group of asteroids and comets deemed capable of immense destruction — or even the total extinction of our species — by NASA and other space agencies. Varying greatly in scale, each drawing renders a speculative depiction of a PHO (Potentially Hazardous Object) in India ink, graphite, and colored pencil. Employing her signature method of marking out the perimeters of her shapes and then using rulers and ink to build depth and volume, Bouvier maneuvers deftly between meticulously controlled line work and the ink’s unexpected drips, stutters, and vein bursts.

In Bouvier’s hand, space rocks become diaphanous creatures. Framed by a white aura against a scored, grey background, they emit an ethereal glow. At its base, the stony mass dissolves into tiny particles as if ripped by its own velocity. Just below, color-coded bars mimicking tables used to represent temperature or surface elevation mark out a very different narrative. Simulating scientific drawings, Bouvier also zooms into details of the asteroids’ surfaces, enlarging them to reveal bacterial blooms in a looser, freer hand. By endowing them with microbial life, we are reminded of our own astral inheritance.