In our last Kick-About, Lee Bontecou gave us forms that felt part-machine, part-organism, and part imagined architecture. This week, we look much further out, to Donati’s Comet — a nineteenth-century spectacle of light, movement, and vast distance. As always, the works that follow were made in a short time — and for all previous editions of The Kick-About, go here.
Gary Thorne
“This free warp weave takes on some characteristics of the comet’s action, in my mind at least. It has finally come to occupy a bit of wall space, adding a splash of colour. More importantly, its good to be back within KA after an absence.”
Graeme Daly
“Inspired by Cornelis van der Griendt’s etching of Donati’s Comet, I scanned through my library of photographs and found a few suitable candidates. I then painted the star scene over the photographs and added some grain and colour correction to give two of the daytime scenes more of a night-time feel.”
@graemedalyart / vimeo.com/graemedaly / linkedin.com/in/graeme-daly / twitter.com/Graeme_Daly / gentlegiant.ie
Phil Gomm
“Inspired by Donati’s Comet, these images evoke the Moon but are in fact photographs of the corroded bowls of a series of metal bird baths from our garden. You’re looking directly down into the metal basins, where sparrows and starlings come to drink and bathe, and where the original red and yellow enamel paint has gradually become worn and patchy. The contrasting tones of the red and yellow enamel produce striking effects when photographed in black and white. I had a hunch that, photographed against black sugar paper, the surfaces might evoke planetary or lunar landscapes.
I’ve titled the series Mare Ferrum (‘Sea of Iron’), an invented Latin name modelled on the names of the Moon’s dark basalt plains—such as Mare Tranquillitatis (Sea of Tranquillity), Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains) and Mare Serenitatis (Sea of Serenity). These names were largely established in the seventeenth century, most notably by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Battista Riccioli in his 1651 lunar nomenclature.”
philgomm.com / behance.net/Phil_Gomm
Kerfe Roig
“Since most of my things are in storage, I was left with the few art supplies I brought to the temporary rental. I really would have liked some tissue paper for this one, but alas, it was not to be. I also meant for the paint to be much drippier. I didn’t have time to embroider more than one of them, and the stitching looks much better in person than it does in the photograph. Still, it felt good to create something, and I managed to write a poem as well.”
Comet
endless night
eclipses as if
it were born
remembering
stars summoned
by oceanghosts
beginning time
here and always
on currents sailing
trails of light
singing distances
between asking
who are we?
and why?
James Randall
“This was one of those just go with it moments… There is a comet in there.”
Next time, we turn to Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, whose paintings build complex worlds from line, structure, and the suggestion of place.
Red's Kingdom 
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