Aeon of the Black Sun: Nuit, Clay and the Chance of Union

From 24 January to 14 March 2026, the South Gallery of the Comox Valley Art Gallery in Courtenay held Aeon of the Black Sun, nineteen works I made over three years around the Egyptian sky goddess Nuit. These are notes on what was in the room, and why.

Nuit and the title. In my cosmology, Nuit is the mother who gives birth to the physical universe: her body is the void, and from it she births the stars. In that birth, creator and created become two. The exhibition starts from how far into that division we have gone, and proposes a return to the cosmic mother and to the unconscious, which I see as a feminine principle long overridden by the masculine. The works make that return physical: a mound of clay to walk into, a ritual held on the night of an eclipse. The Black Sun of the title is the source of that feminine energy: a light that gives without needing to be seen, an unconditional love working in silence for the benefit of all.

The verse in the window. Facing the street, the gallery window showed Nuit’s words from Liber AL vel Legis (I:29–30, 1904) as moving text: “For I am divided for love’s sake, for the chance of union. This is the creation of the world, that the pain of division is as nothing, and the joy of dissolution all.” For me, the verse is a promise, not a lament. The cosmic mother’s love is unconditional: she puts humanity through division so that we can unite again, more fully. She works like the Virgo archetype, which takes a whole apart in order to reassemble it, or like the Star in the tarot, the card that follows the collapse of the Tower: after chaos, renewal. That hope runs through the whole exhibition.

The mound. At the centre of the room stood Gharbha-Grha Womb, a walk-in mound of steel, plaster and local clay, with vetiver and angelica root, cardamom, lapis lazuli and rose oil. Its title recalls the Sanskrit garbhagriha, the “womb chamber” at the heart of a temple. Inside, wool muffles every sound: it is designed to make you feel like you’re in a womb. I think of it as the heart of the world, the kind of cavern where ancient feminine rites were once performed, and I link it to the Osirion at Abydos, a temple of water, underground and in the dark, with a mound above it. Visitors entered from the west and left by the east, as the sun passes through Nuit’s body each night.

The scent. Solar Anchor is the scent installation that held the room together, in three layers. Lapis Stellaris, a deep-blue anointing oil distilled by Mikaël Zayat, was worn on the skin. Rose Centifolia was sealed inside the mound. Vetiver, angelica root and cardamom were mixed into the clay and scattered around it. Smell can connect you to a place that’s timeless: even when the show is no longer in their region, people can smell it and remember what the experience was.

The Ritual of Dissolution. On 3 March 2026, the night of a lunar eclipse, sixteen people took part in the Ritual of Dissolution. Anointed with Lapis Stellaris and holding vetiver tea, they gazed for eight minutes into the circles of Portal of Emanation, a painting on steel that opened and closed with the planetary hours of Saturn. One by one they entered the mound from the west and named to themselves one label they had outgrown. Leaving by the east, they wrote it on dissolving paper and watched it vanish in ocean water. The vessel holding the dissolved labels stayed in the gallery for the rest of the show.

Rite of Division. When the show closed, I took the mound apart in a performance, Rite of Division. Because it is made of clay, the mound is cut in half to travel and rebuilt at every venue, where possible with clay from that place. Each time it arrives, it is divided and made whole again, for love’s sake. The video of the performance weaves it together with the verse from the window.

Watch and listen. Video, sound and two talks recorded in the exhibition are at alexcoma.world/aeon. Aeon of the Black Sun is available to tour to public galleries and artist-run centres. For images, the works list or touring details: alexcomavision@gmail.com.

Installation photography: Alex Coma. Ritual photography: Carissa Brockman. Frame construction and metalwork: Adam Szoki.