Lyric SV
Lyric SV is a systematic variation of the original Lyric geometry, using a new process led idea to create a more liquid treatment, that breaks up the linework with a far more painterly style of abstraction, hopefully without losing too much of the original rhythm that flows through the piece.
Torsion / REZ
There’s an opportunity with digital tools to re-edit and re-process existing material, so around the time I drew Torsion, I was experimenting with the idea of multiply processing new drawings in a sequential or linear series. Effectively creating an initial piece, and then using that as the basis for the next study, but taking it in a new direction, with each new sequence in the process adding a new twist to the work.
Oriel / TWO
Oriel / TWO uses a variant of the underlying geometry I drew for Oriel / ONE, but then goes on to dress it with a far more complex series of individually drawn components, that slot together to form a kaleidoscope of coloured pieces held tightly together by the rigour of the underlying structure.
Spinnaker
Spinnaker takes its energy from the idea of three movements, 120 degrees apart, travelling in a kind of perpetual motion around the toroid, or circle. I wanted the geometry to resolve in such a way that there would appear to be three key moves, and three interstitial sections, combining with an energy that would seem to naturally rotate them, around the disc. I hope the final solution seems effortless in its execution.
Ascension
Ascension, like Myriad before it, has some sense of the record sleeve, or the spinning vinyl, as the geometry spins away from the central core. The colours are Mondrian simple, primaries, red, yellow, blue, black and white, and the whole is intended as an homage of sorts to the BeBop era, not a thing I’m overly familiar with, but there is a desire to loosen up, to riff on the geometry, and to allow the drawing to dictate it’s own form.
Flow / diptych
Flow / silver base and deep base are two of the original variants I drew in 2007, for a hugely enjoyable four person show, Transistor at the Southbank. We had a fantastic ten days there, exhibiting in a raw concrete unit pre fit out, just alongside the Royal Festival Hall, as part of the revamp that has reignited huge interest in the area.
Vortura
I'd been meaning to try a new series of pieces that would be shattered, or crystalline, in some way, to work as a counterpoint to the more fluid, liquid geometries I’ve been drawing. Vortura is the first result of that thinking. It’s one of those pieces that is better in the flesh than on screen, in large part because there’s a subtlety in the colour and detailing that gets lost in these smaller images.
Mondial
Mondial takes the idea of encapsulating a mathematically coherent sequence of geometrical progressions within a singular toroid form. In that sense it can be viewed as a microcosm of a particular world, totally contained within its own boundaries.
beBop 33
I drew two beBop studies, 33 and 45, one landscape, one portrait. I wanted to pack the long player version with enough detail to create continuous interest as you walk past the work. Ideally it would be large enough to be read in sections, as individual phrases within the piece, rather than viewing the whole image at once.
Revolver / helix series
Revolver is one of the earliest studies from the project, and one that forms the basis for much of what has been drawn since, especially with regard to the idea of using a square format, and a circular line. There are no glazes or transparencies here, simply the linework in motion, captured at a particular moment in time. The studies are off centre, a little off kilter, and that tension, I think, is where the interest lies.
SysVar / ONE
Systematic variation / ONE encapsulates the first iteration of a new idea for processing the drawings with a technique that sees them becoming more complex, more impure, more abstracted, more serendipitous. Working on how to add randomness, avoid clinical symmetries, and explore new techniques to distort and modulate the colour and linework is something I’m keen to study further.
Solaris
There’s a tension between the rigour of the mathematical systems underlying Solaris, and the looseness of haptic mark making on the surface, that is the real interest here. Alongside two highly worked colour palettes that I hope create enough energy to successfully capture and hold the viewer’s attention.
beBop 45
Around the time I started experimenting with the idea of double exposures, I realised that I could process two distinct and separate geometries with a single colour palette and use one to overlay and modulate the other. beBop uses this idea to punctuate its moderately formal grid with individual notes, or eyes, that dominate the image and break it out of the rigidity of its underlying structure.
Lumen
I made Lumen for Transistor at the Southbank as a large 200cm square work, alongside a smaller monochrome study, black ghost. Later that year I reworked the piece with a more complex softened underpainting, shuffling the grid of nine individual pieces randomly, in order to create a set of darker forms to shade the study, whilst keeping the original white highlights and coloured volumes largely unchanged.
Cal R
Cal R is a study I drew after a number of encounters with the inspirational architecture of Santiago Calatrava. Combining natural forms with rib like construction methods, the work progresses the idea of shaping a sculptural piece for the wall by laser cutting the mount, and in so doing moves away from the traditional convention of rectilinear artworks, to some extent becoming a sculptural object in itself.
Flow / RMX / panton
I wanted to work on the idea of ‘remixing’ particular geometries for my 2015 show Lucid / RMX. It’s an idea that comes straight out of the music world, and in particular the kind of electronica I’m listening to much of the time. This piece takes that idea and applies it to create a new, more idiosyncratic Flow study, that I felt can also be seen as a small homage to a true great, Verner Panton. I trust he would approve.
