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Abstract for Symposium
Systematic seduction — much more than painting by numbers
Contemporary abstraction can be used as a way to seduce and then expand the viewers' perception (intellectual, visual, physical, emotional even). This paper looks at a practice that intends to achieve this through the considered use of colour, light, form, materiality and placement of work.
The practice is one that is driven through making. Writing follows the work, rarely the other way round. Current work takes two distinct forms — wall works generated through a rules based system of making, and non-rules based works made with paper.
Wall works
These hand made, systematic geometric abstract works play with optical, physical and conceptual space. Data gathered from playing "choose your own adventure" books is transformed into the work: a continuous red pencil line zig-zags across a two metre square white wall and 13 painted geometric shapes are butted together (to make what some have said looks like a missile).
Paper works
These quicker, non-rules based, playful pieces are like drawing — a means to rapidly explore and generate new ideas. They can be loosely grouped as follows:
- FHM (fucking hardcore minimalist) work: made from folded paper concerning light, shadow, folding.
- Flirty Fluorescents: made from florescent post-it notes. A light-hearted-flirty-pop-minimalism. A break from the hardcore.
- Seductive surfaces: work made using iridescent origami paper, folded or arranged in a grid.
Questions around the work
In the broader context, where and how does systematic geometric work made today (beyond modernism) sit within contemporary abstraction and within a larger art historical context?
Be it the moves from a game of chess or numbers derived from the holiday road toll, how important is knowledge of the data source and how can this best be utilised in the deployment of the work?
How effectively can this rules based system be deployed in response to, rather than being imposed upon, a variety of different spaces?
Next project: → Post Graduate Symposium
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