Testing the limits of abstraction
The Abstracted 35 series has provided a unique opportunity to test the limits of abstraction, to see how much detail can be removed from an image and still create interest and conversations. Being in an experimental mindset means that I’m making leaps using the scanned source images as something that can be adjusted to create new articulations of work.
Each articulation includes using the image as the basis for understanding how the viewer might perceive an image when changes to the colour and form are created. This is in part imagining new ways of working, and for others it’s about drawing from the past. This is currently taking the form of three different ways of working with an image:
Starting Image: Abstracted 35, Set 1, Image 10
Iteration (left)
This version uses the image to consider what details are removed when one works with repeated patterns, in this case, a repetition of 6 pixels wide creates this complex image. This process draws on previous work in the iteration series.
Colour Field (middle)
This articulation concerns reducing the image to a colour field, the details pared back so that no definite marks are visible.
Black & White (right)
This latest articulation was inspired by viewing black and white photographs, printed on standard paperback paper, in a book about photography - the detail still evident but reduced almost to the limits of visibility.
At this stage, these experiments are giving me the chance to question and challenge norms of how an image might be perceived. I’ve always been fascinated by how each person perceives something is based on their own experiences, understanding, knowledge and is unique to them. These images offer the viewer a chance to imagine what something might be, and hopefully creates a space that offers a moment of sanctuary while observing something different.