monday, july 06, 2009

 

 

Having the opportunity to exhibit, live and work in spain this summer has been a godsend. My inner palette has been replenished with colours. Beyond, the turquoise blues of clear skies and deep oceans, the sumptuous burnt oxide oranges and soft golden yellows of the Mediterranean buildings, the age and texture of Roman architecture in the stone edifices infect my mind and body as I walk through the ancient and seemingly endeless maze of streets that comprise the old quarters in Barcelona.

 

I haven’t even begun my journey through Gaudi’s psychedelic mind, but the surface is ready, the canvas is primed and ready to be spilled onto. From Picasso and Dali, to Miro and Tapies, the inspiration of great Catalonian artists is evident everywhere I go. In every step, at every turn, I understand them as my brothers in arts, greats- yes, a world apart, no. I can read the language and structure behind it, understanding the raison d’etre and the discovery within….

 

Exhibiting a series of works at Red O3 Gallery in the Born has been a joy. A small space, in the centre of it all, it remains a hidden gem, whose flat files and hidden recesses reveal works of a group of truly talented international artists. I am touched and honoured to have been invited and made welcome by artist Joso Vidal and the gallery owner Marcela Jardon

 

The works I’ve been showing have been an experimental configuration. An installation of 9 pieces, it is a jigsaw in which there are broad variables of positioning and evocation. I’ve titled the piece ‘Totems’. Traditionally , totems, have been a ingenious indigenous way of telling story of self, identity and ancestry in relation to the ‘animas’ – the soul and spirit to which a tribe has related or felt connected. In my pieces it is a faceless, space, one of cosmic identity, as marks, scratches and indentations on the surface of time. In some religions, depicting a person or form is considered idolatry, and as with these pieces, I am seeking to communicate a universal language, through the process of mirroring. When we see ourselves in the mirror of time, how do we appear? As moss, as movement, as change…

 

These pieces represent The One, and The Many. A Universal Story. Oneness and separation, togetherness and the space in between. As a numerology puzzle there is also a convincing visual interplay, for those who want to look at it that way. I’ve altered the installation 3 times now. Each new week of exhibition, I’ve been playing with the structure and format, allowing the strength of the pieces to be read, seen and experienced differently. Not because I’m unhappy with it, but because I am! And I’m exploring the way an infinitude of possibilities can both appear and be embraced.

 

The first structure was 9 as One. 3 vertical, 3 horizontal, 3 vertical. It had connotations of the ancient Taoist divinatory text, the I Ching. The second was all 9 pieces vertically, which elicited responses and reminders of such architectural anomalies from Stonehenge onwards! And the final configuration is as One, Three and Five… 1 for Oneness, 3 for the sacred triune, and 5 for Earth and energy human and divine…