
These pictures come under the category of Kinetic Art. Which basically means art that moves. Over the last hundred years there have been many examples of Kinetic Art, mostly sculpture: Automatons and Mobiles for example. Little has been done using movement in two dimensions.
The form of the current series of pictures resulted initially from an interest in using solar power as the motivating force. This led naturally to exploring how light can be used to create transformative images.
Introducing movement enhances the potential of the medium to create mystery and sensuality. It has always been important that my images engage the observer without the need for any fore-knowledge of art or intellectual understanding.
In the past, my work has tended towards the left-brain controlling side of the Classic/Romantic balance. With these pictures, the impossibility of imagining an end result, and having to wait to see what emerges in movement, has redressed this imbalance; the romantic sensual image being facilitated by its underlying classic technological structure.
I have found that mixing filtered light seems to suggest a colour theory that is neither subtractive (mixing pigments) nor additive (projecting colour light). When light travels through coloured filters directly to the eye of the observer, it seems to have its own rules.
This has provided me with a special opportunity for creative expression.
I have been making images that involve:
- the optical mixing and manipulation of colour.
- the use of illusory movement; an optical effect that suggests an illusion of movement that is contrary to the actual movement.
- the use of the actual revolving image for a literal descriptive way of creating illusion.
- the range of possibilities emerging out of the abstract use of patterns that counter-point stationary and moving elements.
- the techniques and effects that derive from the special use of the representational image in the peculiar conditions of a revolving picture plane.
At best, my images remain mysterious – even to myself. This helps me to let their meaning reside (as it surely always must) in the experience of the viewer.