Expand/constrict
Colour and layering are the defining elements in my recent bodies of work. While the works are physically flat, shifting illusions of depth are created by the interplay of colour. One colour shifts as others are printed on top, the image is built up to be multi-coloured despite only being made up of a few colour layers. Within the image the illusion of physical depth (positive and negative space) is mutable as well; a shape sitting in the front of the picture plane has the potential to shift to the back and vice versa.
Even though I work in an abstract way, inspiration begins with things that are meaningful and personal to me. Hidden within each layer is a visual reference to a moment in my life: it may be an already abstracted symbol or it may be an object of value to me. However, because of the multiplicity involved in layering, new dominant forms emerge and these initial referential images become my secrets, my talismans.
The concepts that I work with often have the word “versus” between them. If you look at one thing, how can you not look at its opposite? In my most recent body of work, “Constrict/Expand” I chose to create half of the work as single-layer black forms because I wanted to emphasise the paradox inherent in their complexity and starkness. The other half I created as five layer multiple-colour works using gradient rolls in order to maximise the potential for shape-shifting as well as to increase the number of secondary and tertiary colour mixes. The works, when viewed together, have the capacity to explore the ground between disparate elements as shifting metaphorical negative and positive spaces.
Shown at Solander Gallery in exhibitions entitled Inside Worlds in 2017.
