Cetacea

1980

Project for a Memorial to all the Species of the Order Cetacea

47.5 x 38.8 cm

Pastel and ink on paper.

Published in Whales: A Celebration, edited by Greg Gatenby, published by Little, Brown and Company,Boston, 1983.

Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 83-081062

Lijn conceived this project as a cast glass prism of indeterminate size (the larger the better) on the surface of which were engraved the names of all the diverse species of the order Cetacea.

Glass was invented in Sumer and represents water and light. The prism refers back in time to Sumer, their lists and catalogues engraved on clay prisms, and to astronomy, the study of celestial heaven’s mirror of earthly seas.