Light Play
Blue Line Arts
Roseville, CA
6 June-9 July, 2016
Reception: 18 June (6-9 PM)

I have long been interested in how we perceive forms, and in the power of abstract art to deepen our understanding of perception. Cast your eyes to the horizon and you’ll see how quickly the mind measures, frames, and categorizes the scene, latches on to form and shape, and instinctively divides the world into categories such as “earth”, “sea”, “sky”. Is it possible to see past these mind-made boundaries? What remains when we shift our gaze and distill the horizon to its pure visual essence?

To explore these questions, I spent months photographing the same spot on the distant ocean horizon at different times and different days. I deliberately de-focussed the lens to create a softened gaze that transforms sharp boundaries into seamless transitions of colour and dissolves familiar forms: no “sea”, no “sky”, no “horizon”. In this way, the eye is liberated from the familiar constraints of form, and is released into an immeasurable field of pure light.

I then rearranged strips from these formless photographs into triptychs. This allows the eye to explore and compare the variations of light and colour that naturally occur from hour to hour and day to day. I print these images large to create an immersive sensory experience that places the viewer on an equal footing with the images.