The Galaxy Doorway

About this work

The archway rises from the dune near the centre, an old structure of stone and wood. On the left a panelled door stands half open. Through and around the arch a spiral galaxy swirls in blue, white and gold, and its glowing core sits right inside the opening, so the eye goes straight to it. Look again and something is wrong in a pleasing way: the right side of the arch stops in mid-air, and a short broken pillar stands on the sand below it. From the threshold a golden path of light leads across a pale sea to the horizon. Cumulus clouds frame the scene on both sides beneath a dark navy sky full of stars. Footprints mark the sand in the foreground. Up close, the door panels and the fine stars stand out. From afar it is a single bright portal. The mood is one of wonder.

Our own Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy, and the Sun sits in one of its smaller arms, some 26,000 light-years from the centre. The arms of many spiral galaxies are often described as roughly logarithmic spirals, the same family of curves as the golden spiral linked to 1.618 and the Fibonacci numbers. Here a galaxy is fitted into a doorway, which is just the sort of switch surrealism loved. From the 1920s onward the movement used doors, windows and frames as thresholds between waking life and dream, and an arch that holds itself up in mid-air belongs firmly to that world.

It brings a sense of possibility to a home office or a teenager's bedroom, and makes a striking first view in an entrance hall. Navy, cobalt, charcoal and sandy beige walls all draw out its colours, and crisp white works too. A black or dark navy frame makes the galaxy glow; a thin gold frame echoes the light path. It looks its best under even, indirect light, away from glare. For a desk wall, 40 × 60 cm is about right; for a hall, 60 × 90 cm. Pair it with The Spiral Library, whose lone door stands in a similar desert, or with The Golden Whirlpool for another glowing centre. The file prints sharply to roughly 91 cm on the long edge at 300 dpi.