Out of this World: the art of Josh Kirby
Painted 1980 for the Voyage of the Ayeguy portfolio set.
This scene from Kirby's Voyage of the Ayeguy series shows the ascension of the central character, Jay Zuzz. His ascension is technologically assisted: fluids within the spacesuit have restored his life and the Ark returns to beam him up in a scene framed by onlookers. A study in gouache related to this picture is shown in the exhibition.
This is a transcription of Kirby’s accompanying text for this image in the Voyage of the Ayeguy print portfolio:
"The Mothership returns, activates the light guidance ascender beam to boost Jay’s rover pack. Jay’s suit medicure unit has renewed vital fluids, healed broken fibres, restored pulsing tissue. Jay lives once more and feels the suction of the antigrav as he nears the sanctuary of the Ark. Oil smooth limbs, silk metal-skinned robots hiss and glide on roller feet, slightly out of phase as the fringe of the antigrav radiation numbs their circuits. A soft maiden of Varvor has thoughts of times that might have been. Old bones prompt an elder to the vague consciousness of unheard-of happenings, never again to be known, now gone, lost among the receding multitudes of milliseconds…"
Used with the permission of the Trustees of the Josh Kirby Estate.