Repeat 2016
AirSpace Projects Marrickville, Sydney.
5- 20 August 2016
Most work: 43 x 47 cm framed
Media: Mineral Pigment, gouache, India ink, graphite and polymer gesso on Arches
My practice has focused on organic patterning for two decades and more recently has juxtaposed intuitive processes of staining and mark making with geometry, using the grid and circle as a basic unit of pattern construction.
Earlier this year, I spent three months in Iran, Southern Spain and India exploring Islamic and pre-Islamic art and architecture concentrating on systems of geometric and biomorphic patterns developed in the regions. The "Repeat" series of works on paper reflect the significance and simplicity of the circle and its derivatives, as dominant element and motif.
Back in the studio, after coding a mass of travel drawings, I began reconstructing the different groups of patterns using graph paper, compass and ruler to grasp the logic and specific geometric rules. In the translation of these hard-edged geometries and tessellations, gesture, materiality and maintenance of a dynamic figure-ground relationship was emphasised. Surfaces exist as analytical and sensory, engaging with abstraction as a historical genre and unconsciously to the principles of Islamic design.