Titled after the extremely luminous, massive and remote celestial objects also known as quasi-stellar objects, “Quasar II” interweaves references from architecture, the landscape genre and basic principals of contemporary physics in search for a dynamic relationship between bodies at human, architectural, planetary and cosmic scales. The central figure is a fictional architectural fragment caught in a movement of spiraling ascension. Set in black and white silkscreen, in contrast against a colorful yet barren landscape at what might be sunset or dawn, the figure seems oversized, displaced and out of context, yet conveys a sense of movement beyond its pictorial and physical limits. This motion directs our gaze in elevation upward towards a sky depicted in dispersing pink hues of the afterglow, and away from the horizon line, as the figure almost protrudes out of the canvas towards the spectator. While the silkscreen image frame obstructs our view of the landscape and thrusts the architectural figure forward, the painting reveals and liberates the sun’s gestation over the horizon line, creating a sense of intimacy and mysticism. The arrested motion and the spectral movement of Nielsen’s painting combines imaginary vision with a documentarian approach to land and the built environment, and operates as a metaphor for memory and perception caught between fiction and materially inscribed traces.Quasar II is part of a larger series of paintings Nielsen started producing in 2021 in preparation for her participation at Manifesto of Fragility – 16th Lyon Biennial (2022) curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath.