Liliane Lijn

Koancuts (Prints)

1971

79.5 x 55.5 cm

A set of 5 silkscreened, cut and collaged prints.

Produced by Chris Battamba and Bob Saitch at Advanced Graphics from originals.

Commissioned by Leslie Waddington in an edition of 75.

Private Collections.

Koancuts are prints which Lijn made during the same period as the conical sculptures Anti-Gravity Koan, Space Displace Koan, and Exit Matter Koan which were the first large sculptures in her ongoing Koan series.

The cone is a cosmic astronomical form and the shape taken by all emission. The Sumerians and the Indians were great astronomers and mathematicians and understood that the cone and its sections describe the orbital trajectories of planets and comets.

Conical forms are considered sacred healing shapes in cultures as different as Aztec, Egyptian, and the whole of the Indian subcontinent. The cone was and still is the symbol of the sacred mountain, the abode of the Gods, the symbol of the spiritual path to universal consciousness.

At this time Lijn was working with collage. Lijn made the first of these collages soon after the moon landing when the most amazing image circulated in the press: the earth seen from the moon. Lijn made a series of collages she called Inner Space Outer Space in which Lijn intercalated lunar landscapes and earth images with earth seen from moon and moon seen from earth, all as different segments of a cone.

Photography by Tate.