Art @ Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox: HORIZONTAL OR VERTICAL?

Saturday, June 11, 2016

HORIZONTAL OR VERTICAL?

Horizontal or Vertical? Gouache on paper 24 x 32 cm 2016

A COLLISION OF IDEAS

So, where did the idea for this painting come from? In a way it's a collision of many ideas and influences. I am thinking back to some of my early aerial-like landscapes that referenced ploughed fields, paddocks and fields of various crops, irrigation channels, roads and...traces of spirit. Then to other paintings that tried to critique the traction of mining, especially coal seem gas extraction. Recent influences propel the idea of 'landscape' into the cosmic realm where unseen quantum forces cause resonances that ripple across the vastness of time and space.

Even more recent influences are contained within this new image. These include thinking about sight-lines of surveillance from above...drones, satellites, beacons and signals that traverse the sky and space to reach our devices that are embedded within our daily lives. Then there's the infrastructure of cabling that lies beneath the soil and sea enabling communication, surveillance, online transactions facilitated by algorithmic instructions. All the while every movement, communication, online action monitored into a deep pool of data that may or may not be 'mined'.

The trajectories of signals and sight-lines for targets, whether mortal or virtual, come from many directions, hence the title of this painting Horizontal or Vertical?

WHERE ARE YOU?

Are you, the viewer in front of a 'landscape' or are you above it looking down or below it looking up? Where are you? Is it a landscape of geography or one of signals and potential data? Is it benign in intent or not? Are you a digital node or a juncture facilitating the fast paced and constant movement of algorithmic forces? Are you still human?

EXAMPLES OF EARLIER PAINTINGS