Alison Saar

Alison Saar’s Eclipse, which features a figure who acts as a celestial body, asks the viewer to consider possibilities within the work. The lack of pupils is characteristic of Saar’s figures, whose eyes are always blank. This absence of individualizing characteristics creates ambiguity in the print. Is this figure the moon, passing between the earth and the sun, whose rays radiate out from behind their afro? Perhaps this person is the earth itself, orbiting around the sun. It is the viewer who imposes location upon the scene and gender upon the figure, exposing a multiplicity of meaning within the piece.