Lost minor planets are asteroids whose orbits have edged beyond reach of scientific tools. Over time, thousands of such objects have come within grasp of our mechanical eyes, only to...
Lost minor planets are asteroids whose orbits have edged beyond reach of scientific tools. Over time, thousands of such objects have come within grasp of our mechanical eyes, only to disappear. In meticulously rendered, if entirely speculative, drawings, Amélie Bouvier recuperates these missing planetoids, and with them our sense of inadequacy and loss. Their surfaces are pieced together like so many tectonic plates, whose edges nudge against one another leaving small gaps, like pauses for breath. Bouvier’s disciplined linework contrasts with the soft washes of watercolour that accentuate each gradiated facet. Various grids emerge or recede in the background. They point to our desire to draw tidy enclosures around otherwise baffling expanses of knowledge and possibility. Each drawing includes blown-up details of the planetoid’s arterial crust, while strips along the periphery appear like extracts of geologic strata. Fissures ripple through them like seismic waves. In minute detail these drawings recover these lost objects from the insurmountable void of space and return to us what had never been ours.