Unstable structures

I’m still preoccupied with the idea of the unit. Even though the drawings have become looser, the circle imposes a sort of order. I came across some diagrams of carbon structures on the Internet recently. I was particularly drawn to the amorphous structure – apparently it forms at the edges of other elemental compounds, its lack of integrity however allows it to be a part of more complex carbon structures.

Again this ‘in-between’ always seems to be at the heart of things, thinking metaphorically about being on the edge, or the potential of connecting to something larger. It also gets me thinking about certainty and the consequences of letting go of absolutes, which can create possibilities as well as risk – an unstable structure is a vulnerable one.

I’ve been keeping the phrase ‘occidental accident’ in my head for quite a long time as a possible development of the work. It still isn’t entirely clear to me but the idea of something ‘Western’ being accidental – like a by-product - something not anticipated intrigues me.

Object?

I used to make objects, and for several reasons I’ve spent some time away from that activity. For a while the idea of making an object felt rather static. When the urge resurfaced I was filled with anxiety at the thought of having to battle with old insecurities. But recently several conversations have allowed me to find the courage.

I’m thinking that the drawings are informing these experiments - so far they’re not a direct translation of them. There are also some formative things going on, which feel right at this moment to return to. I’d like to keep both things going in tandem se what happens...

A gallery visit

I’m making an effort to go and see shows with other people these days. Apart from bouncing ideas off each other – there’s an opportunity to see other kinds of work that I wouldn’t necessarily have chosen. A recent visit to the Angela Bulloch show at Simon Lee Gallery got me thinking…

I was really struck by a couple of aspects in the work – one being her continual use of the ‘pixel’ to reconstruct cultural phenomena the other, using the idea of a mechanically produced unit. I found her idea of the ‘international pixel’ light box – with its minimal but domestic attributes very compelling. When I was scoping around the mass-produced territory myself, somehow it all amounted to a ‘universally’ accessible aesthetic. I floundered for along time because of that, but ‘international’ sounds more relevant to ideas surrounding ‘aspiration’ in our increasingly ‘globalised’ cultural and economic circumstances. I suppose ‘international’ could just relate to prevalence, another kind of colonialism…

Abstract

So as this abstraction fing is kinda new to me… it’s been rather difficult to gauge the success of my efforts on those grounds - apart from the fact that I find my drawings beautiful. I know some would find that statement simplistic, but I do remember hearing David Batchelor speak of ‘pleasure’ as opposed to ‘beauty’ in relation to the reception of work. That sounds ok I spose - its more definite as a term, you’re less likely to refute its credibility - pleasure is pleasure you can‘t argue with that...

In some ways I’ve taken a rather predictable route, if we take abstraction on the surface as a means of visualising the interior. The archetypal image of the artist removed from the world - I’ve been looking at books on abstract expressionism recently. Strangely although the artist themselves would stress the absence of politics, the social and cultural context surrounding it almost makes that impossible – there is always a position, which equates to a politic.

Rationalizing the expressive

Although this work is an attempt to trust my own hands and to allow them to do something undetermined – there is a social and cultural context surrounding it. For me this is where the light box comes in, behaving as an analytical frame, whether that be the science of the sociology, psychology or art criticism…

Paying more attention to 'art history', I had a realization - that of appropriation and my freedom to do this as an artist trained on Euro/American art school principles. That said I don't have to follow those principles to the letter, just borrow and cannibalise what I need...

Roni Horn 'Pink tons' 2008

And what of African or Caribbean sensibility or aesthetics one might ask? For me right now - it’s more about black abstracted from these routes, and further black constructed within a western context. It’s not an ideal just an existential project, which I know as my own truth - and thats it… Who knows how it will evolve or end?