Colour Discontinuity 3 – the illusion of continuity
Front surface mirror, wood, acrylic. March 2017 20x20x14cm
A colored rod reflected in a mirror, positioned so that the reflection of the rod coincides with another rod of a different color on the other side of the mirror, creating an ambiguous optical effect.
A study of ambiguous visual stimuli to question the nature of perception and the interpretation of reality through the visual illusion of continuity.
The work is quite small and is intended to be viewed close up. Because of this the mirror used is a front surfce mirror (or first surface mirror), which is a mirror that is coated on the front rather than the back. As a result there are no ghost reflections caused by the thickness of the glass.
I’ve worked with mirrors since I was a teenager in the late 1960s, when I ground the parabolic mirror for an astronomical telescope that I’d constructed. I got it coated by Grubb Parsons, a telescope manufacturing company that constructed seriously large telescopes including the Isaac Newton telescope and the William Herschel telescope. I used that mirror in one of my early mirror art experiments in about 1970.
This is a piece of art that I created recently that’s inspired by frequent unpleasant encounters with dog poo bags while out on walks in the countryside.
On one walk along a popular track up a mountain in Wales last year the poo bags were so frequent that they inspired me to conceive of the idea of a path lined with an avenue of poo bags. I’ve created a work based on the concept here.
For the work in these photos it was a small step to move a single bag from the countryside to the art gallery. The question is, is it a real dog poo bag or not? All that I can say is that it’s described as being ‘mixed media’.
Contemporary art and science – the creation of something out of nothing.
The image above is an example of work from a series that I created specifically to explore concepts from the worlds of science and philosophy. The original motivation behind the work was a wish to devise a visual means of expressing the concept that our incredibly complex universe is generated from the interaction of extremely simple fundamental forces that underlie the cosmos.
The image explores the generation of complex forms from simple forms. The image is composed of two identical square grids of regularly spaced small circles. Each grid is very simple in composition and represents the basic underlying ‘stuff’ at the very lowest level of existence in the universe. One of the grids is positioned above the other and is rotated so that the arrangement of circles on the two grids are at different angles to each other, meaning that they overlap.
A simple algorithm is applied to the overlapping grids. The algorithm dictates that where the black areas of the circles overlap the blacks cancel each other out, effectively leaving white (because the background is white). See the two examples below, showing differing amounts of overlap.
The two simple overlapping grids of circles generate surprisingly complex patterns, forming multiple and various interacting rings, some of which are obvious while others are fugitive and seem to come in and out of existence as your eye scans the image.
What’s more, when the two grids are rotated relative to each other the whole formation of rings and patterns shifts and changes as the grids alter their positions relative to each other. See how the patterns generated in the image below aren’t the same as those in the image at the top.
As I mentioned, the square grid in the image is a metaphor for the deepest, most fundamental and basic level of the physical universe, where nothing exists other than the simplest of all possible fluctuations in ‘nothingness’ itself (represented by the uniform circles).
Complexity and structure come into existence when this basic level of the physical universe – the grid of circles – interacts with itself, creating intricate forms that contain a new and complex internal structure. It is this complex internal structure that then gives rise to even more complex structures within the universe, for instance giving form to the elementary particles that act as the building blocks of the universe that we’re familiar with (while also giving form to the parts of the universe that we’ve got no inkling about, too).
I like to think of the patterns in the images as metaphors for ripples in the fabric of reality.
The videos show the shifting and transient nature of the complex patterns very well, expressing, I like to think, the way that the structure in physical reality “pops” in and out of existence.
A sketch of an idea for a sculpture, showing an umbrella mounted at the top of a conical structure that has short filaments protruding from it. I have a fascination with umbrellas for some reason. I think it’s possibly due to a mixture of their slightly Heath Robinsonesque mechanical structure – the hinged flexible rods that are levered outwards to support a stretched fabric cover – and their pleasing form when in the open position. Not to mention their practicality. And the fact that they are, despite their mechanical intricacy, very much taken for granted and dismissed as objects of great mundanity. My first ever published piece of artwork was an absurdist redesign of the umbrella, published in the Sunday Times in about 1974.
Environmental contemporary art – the Earth in a kitchen waste bin.
Kitchen waste bin, digital display. January 2017, Cornwall.
This is an example of my work on environmental issues such as global warming and climate change. This sculpture addresses the issues of over-consumption, environmental degradation and waste. I have been creating work about the state of the natural world and the environment since the 1970s.
From most angles (as in the image on the left, above) the bin looks like any conventional kitchen bin: however when viewed from the front (the image on the right, above) the opening in the bin is transformed into a portal to the cosmos, with the Earth suspended in the darkness of outer space.
The inside of the bin is pitch black due to the use of extremely matt black paint, while the Earth shines as a back-lit image.
The work carries the environmental message that the human race is treating the earth with contempt and that we are effectively placing the planet itself in the rubbish bin.
The work is a development of a concept that I had in about the year 2000, when I produced several environment-themed drawings of the earth falling into a wastepaper basket. The sculptural potential of using a real rubbish bin to create an illusion of outer space is a more recent development.
A version of this work was shown in my solo show at Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens, Cornwall in 2022 and was shortlisted for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in the same year.
Below is a video of the work showing the dramatic optical illusion effect of the work which can only be appreciated in three dimensions of on video.
A study for a surreal work composed of a pair of shoes with mouths and teeth. The teeth in this study were added digitally. These particular shoes were chosen partly because the holes at the toe end of the shoes give the impression of eyes. An unsettling aspect of this concept is that it is normal for a person to put their feet into shoes – however these shoes look as though they would devour anything that was placed in their ‘mouths’. They are almost lying in wait for feet to be placed inside them. This work may be interpreted as being a metaphor for the manner in which consumerism devours people (especially via the connsumerism of clothing and fashion). I thought of the concept of carnivorous shoes that devour their wearer many years ago and drew it as a sketch. It’s currently misplaced in my studio so I’m not sure of the year.
Study for a proposed sculpture. Photograph of a barograph, digital manipulation. January 2017
A photograph of a barograph digitally altered so that the arm of the barograph appears to be creating a fine pen and ink drawing of a landscape. A barograph normally draws a graph recording air pressure over the course of time on a sheet of graph paper attached to a rotating drum. This barograph is in the spirit of surrealism and dada – it is a scientific instrument appropriated for the purposes of art (In C P Snow’s two cultures thesis this would possibly count as cultural appropriation).
Mirrors, cord and light source: January 2017. W=30cm H=30cm
A study for a work composed of mirrors that are configured so that they create reflections round a symmetrical axis and also create reflections in infinite regression. The reflected object in this work is a single short length of coloured cord (about 40cm long), made to appear much longer by the multiple reflections in the mirrors. The cord is brightly coloured and is lit by a directional light source which gives the cord the effect of being a pulsating energy stream in a containment vessel, perhaps in a high energy physics laboratory. This work brings together my interests in art and science, especially the science of optics and perception.
A pair of shoes reflected in a mirror, with the shoes positioned so that the reflection of the shoe in the mirror coincides exactly with the other shoe on the opposite side of the mirror, thus optically merging the real shoe with the reflection of the other shoe. Like a lot of my works that involves optical illusion and perception this one explores the line between reality and our interpretation of what we perceive. It also links art with humour – humour being an interesting psychological interpretation of the world.
Perception and deception. Odd shoes reflected in a mirror
Shoes, mirror. January 2013
Part of a series of works involving the reflection of shoes in a mirror, with the shoes positioned so that the reflection of each shoe in the mirror coincides exactly with the other shoe on the opposite side of the mirror. In this work the shoes involved are not a pair. This creates a double dissonance in the viewer. Firstly the viewer has to interpret the fact that the reflected part of the shoe is not part of the other shoe, and secondly the viewer has to interpret the fact that the two shoes are different (with the degree of difference varying depending on the position of the viewer and thus the amount of the shoe that is behind the mirror that is visible). Like a lot of my works that involve mirrors, reflections, perception and optical illusions this one explores the line between reality and our interpretation of what we perceive. Hopefully it includes an element of humour too.
A study of reflections using mundane everyday objects to create interesting multiple reflections. Here ordinary hardware screws are arranged to form a dynamic expansive configuration. Screws lend themselves to this study partly because of their physically dynamic shape – large at one end and then tapering away at the other – and partly because of their intended purpose, which is to hold things in place – the exact opposite of dynamic expansiveness – which brings a slight touch of paradox to the work. If anyone looking at the image feels that I ought to have lined up the screw heads, it’s a deliberate act not to have aligned them, even though in real life I am an obsessive screw head aligner.
An example of one of my contemporary art projects exploring mirrors, reflections and illusions, here using a piece of cord that is reflected multiple times to give the impression of a closed circle.
This work consists of three mirrors arranged as a triangular box with the reflective surfaces facing inwards. The box is placed over a length of brightly coloured meandering paracord. The cord is laid so that the section that lies inside the triangular box is reflected on the box’s sides to give the illusion of forming a circle. The second photo shows the work from a different angle to show the structure.
Metamorphosis: reflection of a hand into an alien creature
Mirrors and hand. October 2016
Three mirrors forming the vertical sides of a triangular box turn a hand into an alien creature by multiple reflections. The hand is intruding into the box through an opening in the corner. The artwork is an exploration of how a familiar object (a hand) can be transformed into something completely alien purely by the use of simple mirrors. A study of the familiar becoming unfamiliar via a mundane agency. When the fingers of the hand move the effect is surprisingly disturbing (I’ll make a video of it when I can).
Visualisation of artwork in the foyer of an office
Video/photo montage. 2022
Look at the image above for a second time after a few seconds and notice how the artwork on the wall has changed.
It’s a visualisation of an animated artwork on the foyer wall of a large office building, with the artwork montaged onto a static image. The rotating forms within the artwork are moving slowly here so that they create an ordered, calming effect. The speed of the movement can be changed, for instance to create a faster, more dynamic feel if necessary.
The works in my Complexity series, such as the example shown here, lend themselves very much to spacious office foyers due to the way that they work well at very large scales.
The amount of detail that is generated in these works is very high, as can be seen in other examples here. The works can be displayed as static images or as very eye-catching animated images (either projected or on electronic displays). Any corporate art consultancy that is interested in this work – please get in touch!
A static image of the work.
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Sheep skull
Photographs 12th February 2016
Photographs of a sheep skull from the rear.
The unusual viewpoints in these photographs make the skull look unfamiliar.
In the first photograph, above, you can’t see the eye sockets or the parts of the mouth or nasal cavities, but the image shows features that are readily, but wrongly, interpreted as these features. There seem to be eyes at the sides of the skull and a mouth at the base (This is the hole where the spine and the skull meet). There’s even a small bony structure that resembles a nose.
More fancifully the bones that seem to form the outer edges of the eyes can be interpreted as being little arms that are dangling from the junctions of the skull and the horns, and the small bony appendages at the base of the skull can be interpreted as little legs.
Dip pen and ink sketch on paper.: Cows, Cantegral, Dordogne, France
Dip pen and ink on paper. September 1991
A sketchbook page of cattle grazing in a field.
The sketch was drawn in situ, using dip pen and ink.
Dip pen and ink is a favourite medium for sketching. Different nibs on different paper produce different results. I’ve got a supply of hundreds of nibs in case they ever go out of production!
Anthropomorphism: dandelion seeds with human bodies
Pen and ink sketch on paper September 2015
A dandelion seed head in which the seeds have anthropomorphic human form. The image is disturbingly ambiguous. Is the fact that one of the seeds is drifting away from the seed head a sign of freedom or simply a sign of fate? And what can be read into the fact that the humans in the anthropomorphic seeds have no heads? Anthropomorphism is a common theme in my work.
Contemporary art and climate change – breathing on a polluted planet.
Digital image. First version: 1991; this version: 2015
A work of environmental contemporary art concerning climate change and pollution. This work is created in a cartoon-like style. There are several reasons for this. One is that I create quite a lot of cartoons (which have been published in newspapers such as the Guardian and magazines such as Private Eye), and another is that I think that the cartoon style is a particularly good and direct way of communicating about subjects such as the environment, global warming, pollution and the various crises that are currently afflicting our planet. One of the appeals of the cartoon art style is that it generally lacks ambiguity, so its message is clear and unmistakable, which is very important with subjects that are as important as climate change, global warming and the environmental issues. Other contemporary art styles are often at their best when they contain a degree of uncertainty or ambiguity about what is being said, requiring the viewer to interpret the work as they see fit. Contemporary art that puts forward a message unambiguously can often tend to come across as rather dead, didactic and hectoring, which I think the cartoon style tends to avoid. Also of course, cartoon art, due to its nature, can easily be reproduced in print or electronically without loss of quality (both physical quality and emotional quality), thus making it available to a much wider audience than most contemporary art – which can only be a good thing when the work tackles important subjects such as the environment and climate change.
The ceramic head in this sculpture is held in the jaws of the spanner by a thin wooden rod that forms the head’s neck. It is uncertain whether the head is trapped in the jaws of the spanner or whether the head and the spanner form a single entity, with the spanner as the body (The shape of the spanner suggests a seated or crouching body). It could be interpreted that the head in the sculpture represents the thinking part of the person, while the spanner represents the physical body of the person, the thinking part thus being clamped (possibly against its will) to the physical part. This could have metaphysical connotations or connotations invoking the expression “born in the wrong body”. This tension of ambiguity of meaning is one of the things I like about the piece. Workshop tools and handyman tools such as spanners, hammers and pliers are a recurring feature of my small scale sculptural work.
