This would lead the astronomer to correctly deduce that the crater-scarred moon was tidally locked to its parent planet Saturn, always maintaining the same face towards the ringed planet.
As it has circulated over time in this orbit, the silver white moon is thought to have collided with meteors from small outer moons moving in retrograde orbits. It was over more than a century later, in that a proposal was set forth by British mathematician and astronomer John Herschel1 to name the moons of Saturn after the twelve Titans found in Greek mythology2. Albedo — a measure of how strongly an object reflects light from its light sources, is often employed when encountering matter whose coloration transposes the full luminous spectrum, from bright to dark.
It was the term albedo that was also the name of an exhibition by Lergon in at Galerie Andreas Huber, Vienna, where giant circular paintings faced one another, taking on the appearance of double eclipses. In one, a white cloud leaves a dark indigo crescent beneath it. In the other, almost the entire surface area is covered by a dark earth tone, whose edge leaves just a thin, bright silver half-moon shape to its left.
On entering the exhibition spaces at ground level, the visitor is confronted with a vast wall work that almost spans the entire horizontal length of the surface it is painted on. It is a noticeable fact that the gray iron, which in powdered form is used here to make the wall work, is also prominent in the content of meteors.
There is a meteoric appearance too, to the wall drawing itself, as Lergon applies the metallic compound densely to render an obtuse, boulder like shape whose top appears to fragment energetically into gaseous form. Beholding this dynamic work, one seems to bear witness to scenes of rapid animation, as if some material change is underway before us.
