Memos was an exhibition curated by Jo Holder at Mori Gallery that paired 6 writers with 6 artists.
"The title was suggested by Italo Calvino's Six Memos for the Coming Millenium. In this, his final novel, Calvino suggests that one may aim to establish a series of values with which to meet so symbolic a date. The selection of artists was guided by Calvino's eclectic and heterogeneous literary values: lightness, precision, visibility, multiplicity and consistency" Jo Holder, Memos catalogue
The main work that I exhibited consisted of 4 large paintings - Detail I-IV, surrounded by 12 small works - Detail 1-12. The response to my work was written by John Sandow in a piece called Yellow Mood in which he responded to a small yellow painting that was 1 of 3 (the other 2 being Blue and Red, of course...). As usual, I no longer have these works, and have no photos of them, except for the black and white reproduction in the catalogue - but they were basically the same image of a stylised flower from a piece of wallpaper, rendered in red, blue and yellow.
The Detail work took it's imagery from 4 different German carpets from about the 16th century. Each of the large works reproduced the patterning from the carpets. Each of these paintings were underpainted with various colours, which were then overpainted in white, so that most of the colouring disappeared. The 12 small paintings took further details from the larger paintings, with these paintings being brightly coloured. The 4 large works formed a 2 x 2 grid with the 12 smaller works hung randomly around the central works
"The title was suggested by Italo Calvino's Six Memos for the Coming Millenium. In this, his final novel, Calvino suggests that one may aim to establish a series of values with which to meet so symbolic a date. The selection of artists was guided by Calvino's eclectic and heterogeneous literary values: lightness, precision, visibility, multiplicity and consistency" Jo Holder, Memos catalogue
The main work that I exhibited consisted of 4 large paintings - Detail I-IV, surrounded by 12 small works - Detail 1-12. The response to my work was written by John Sandow in a piece called Yellow Mood in which he responded to a small yellow painting that was 1 of 3 (the other 2 being Blue and Red, of course...). As usual, I no longer have these works, and have no photos of them, except for the black and white reproduction in the catalogue - but they were basically the same image of a stylised flower from a piece of wallpaper, rendered in red, blue and yellow.
The Detail work took it's imagery from 4 different German carpets from about the 16th century. Each of the large works reproduced the patterning from the carpets. Each of these paintings were underpainted with various colours, which were then overpainted in white, so that most of the colouring disappeared. The 12 small paintings took further details from the larger paintings, with these paintings being brightly coloured. The 4 large works formed a 2 x 2 grid with the 12 smaller works hung randomly around the central works
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| 'Detail I-IV' oil on canvas, 4 panels, 80cm x 70cm each, 1992 |
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| 3 pieces from 'Detail 1-12', oil on canvas on board, 20cm x 17.5 cm each, 1992 |
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