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Bilateral Transparency, oil on canvas © Pip
Dickens
Private Collection
These paintings were the result
of experimentation
with transparent mediums. The
idea of transparency
within a painting allows the
viewer to see
the complete history of the work,
right back
to the fabric of the canvas.
Transparency
also alludes to the 'political'.
These paintings
were made between 1998 to 2000
when the word
'transparency' had become a popular
political
buzzword in the UK. In this respect
the paintings
became an (albeit cynical) proposal
about
contradiction - that an image
that was transparent
(seemingly honest) could also
be complex,
disturbing and confusing.
The resultant paintings Bilateral
Transparency
and Trilateral Transparency are
examples.
The compositional element of
these paintings
is very strongly influenced by
classical
music, in particular Bach's preludes
and
fugues (The Well Tempered Clavier).
The issue
of counterpoint being fundamental,
in particular
the repetition and interweaving
of various
strands of sound. Bach's fugues
seem pure
and simple and yet they are deceptively
complex
structures.
As a result, these paintings
do appear visually
transparent but are also blatantly
'transparent'
in terms of the events of their
making. They
can be optically seductive and
yet, at the
same time, disturbing. They have
no beginning,
no end, no horizon and no particular
area
of focus. One could say they
are a banal
kind of Mannerism.
The titles 'bilateral' and 'trilateral'
were
selected for their political
flavour but
also - again in a mundanely cynical
way -
are evidence of the painting's
making:- 'bilateral'
being the utilization of two
hues and 'trilateral'
of three.
to see paintings from this series
click here
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