SPLICE

GALERIE AL/MA & QUEENSLAND COLLEGE OF ART 2009

‘What opposes unites, and the finest attunement stems from things bearing in opposite directions and all things come about by strife’                   Heraclitus

These recent works on aluminium panels interrogate the relationship between painting and drawing and question the modernist bifurcation of gestural and geometric form.

The utilisation of aluminium is two fold.  Its fine edge alludes to the fragility of paper that evokes an implicit relationship to drawing.  Simultaneously, the aluminium’s hardened surface provides an industrialized dimension dear to minimalist aesthetics.

The drawn component of the image is not developed analytically.  Without the use of a brush or intermediary utensil, solidified oil paint is applied directly with the fingers, conferring a tactile engagement with the medium that promotes a physical, visceral evolution of form resisting representation.

The painted geometric bands appear after the drawing is finished.  Applied at differing levels over the lower part of the image, these monochromatic fields reconfigure the contours of the existing drawing and thus alter the spectator’s perception of the gestural space.  The monochrome band, painted with a roller, creates a tactile experience of colour that establishes diverse spatial and emotive connotations in response to the gestural drawing.

Formed by the juxtaposition of these two opposing components, the horizon line creates a visual dynamic that oscillates between a spatial depth and reductive flatness.  An optical and physical tension is created between the two elements that attempts to exemplify a contemporary notion of Heraclitian harmony.

Miles Hall