Moon-Dog (Parhelion) 1952

James Kleege made this etching called ‘Moon-Dog (Parhelion)’ using a metal plate and acid, although I don’t know exactly when. The whole surface of the print has a kind of velvety texture, from the way the plate was prepared with acid - I love that kind of dark, soft ground. But then, on top of that, there are these hard, spiky lines, forming stars and geometrical shapes. It's like looking at a landscape through the lens of outer space - the organic and the geometric, all mixed up together. I keep thinking about the two sun-dog stars in the middle of the frame; they look ready to break apart like some kind of atomic explosion. And it's funny to think of an artist like Yves Tanguy, from the surrealist movement, creating worlds from a similar set of floating objects. To me, art is all about this sort of ongoing, open ended conversation.