Virginia King

La Luna, 2016
Marine grade stainless steel
2100mm diameter
Price on request

Virginia King’s La Luna enchants your eye immediately from the lake-edge; fourteen highly polished, stainless steel spheres floating delicately on the surface. Representing half a moon cycle, the spheres offer micro-views of the adjacent environment, the landscape, sky and life on a lake. Each piece floats at the mid-way point, connected at perfectly equal places to a submerged ring that controls their spacing. Wind and water currents move the tranquil orbit as a single entity. La Luna is an artwork in which we contemplate the parts that make up the whole.

In her art practice King has maintained a strong focus on cross-cultural themes, especially in the areas of religion and mythologies, colonial and pre-colonial history, and global ecological issues. This work stems from an interest in archetypal symbols representing the passage of day and night, sun and moon and the conception of passing of time and space. King’s placement of the ethereal work in water continues her interest in marine environments and micro-organisms, whilst also achieving a sense of delicacy and ephemera. Her vessel forms such as La Luna transcend us as symbols of exploration and migration, life and survival, nurturing and protection. King has said herself: “The importance of these works is in the collective environmental stewardship that they promote between those who make and those who watch”. (1)