Paper on Wood n.2 It is the only horizontal panel amongst the first three in the series: 2011, mixed media on paper mounted on wood, 99 × 69 cm. Black and gold, with just one nod to geometry.
The background is a dull gold, almost brass-coloured, covered in splashes of black that run downwards like the silhouettes of a city seen at night. In the middle, stretching from one edge to the other, runs a band of white tags: letters stretched vertically, linked by circular ‘E’s, so densely packed that the line becomes a single luminous mass. Beneath, more faintly, other black ‘E’s sink into the background.
In the bottom right-hand corner, a number of sharp, diagonal black stripes with clean edges appear. They are the only measured element in the painting, and it is precisely for this reason that they act as a counterbalance: whilst everything else is spontaneous, they represent order. They are reminiscent of the lines marking out a building site or the tape cordoning off an area: a boundary within the painting.
The surface is deceptive. It looks like wood, but it is actually paper that has been heat-applied and glued onto wood by a studio in Bergamo, with a level of care that is rarely seen. The surface is as smooth as a blackboard, which is why the white remains so crisp even where the tags overlap a hundred times.
Here, the tangle does not fill the canvas: it is contained within a single line, as if chaos had found a path. This is my understanding of balance, which for me only comes after having gone through it. The panel is in a private collection; from the same series, the Paper on Wood n.4.
TITLE: Paper on Wood n.2
YEAR: 2011
TECHNIQUE: Mixed media on paper mounted on wood
WIDTH: 99 cm
HEIGHT: 69 cm
THICKNESS: 3 cm
CATALOGUE: POW211
ORIGINAL: Not available
PRINTS: Not available
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.