In his seminal body of work, Homage to the Square, Josef Albers investigates the interplay of opacity and transparency, using layered squares and colours to create optical illusions and challenge our perception. Inspired by Albers' inquiry, my painting, Violent Delights, deepens this iterative exploration by reimagining the nature of colour—not as static, solid matter but as dynamic particles of light. Within this work, and my wider practice, creative process is embraced as a method of research.
This project presented an opportunity to consider the nature of colour as light through the primary visual language of my practice: the two foundational elements of traditional Chinese painting—ink wash (as colour field) and calligraphic strokes. These ancient techniques, rooted in the observation of nature, are here reframed within the Modernist structure of the square as a deliberate homage to Albers' format.
Violent Delights is a hand-painted work on a 24 x 24-inch (60 x 60 cm) canvas. It explores the layered interaction of traditional Chinese calligraphic strokes in vibrant red over a blue colour field, creating dynamic variations in opacity and density. Through this process I fracture the overlaying red colour field to change the opacity. With the compression of the strokes I exploring their range of density and transparency through different layering combinations. In research the outcomes can be surprising. These strokes and their variant interface came to reveal notions of force, velocity, speed and surface. Framed within the grounding structure of the square the red strokes are parallel to the blue surface leaving it undisturbed.
The strokes fracture and transform the cool surface, with their compression and layering altering the visual weight of the colour field. This interaction of force, velocity, and surface creates a tension between the structured strokes and the undisturbed blue background, generating a sense of both energy and restraint.
Through this process, the painting conveys an instinctive understanding of light as particles—an invisible energy that is conceived through the visual using the primordial algorithm of Chinese calligraphies. My sense of colour and energy aligns with Isaac Newton's particle theory of light, articulated in his 1704 treatise Opticks. While contemporary science primarily understands light as a wave, it is also recognized as discrete particles of energy called photons. In Violent Delights, I aim to conceive not only the optical experience of light and colour but also a deeper resonance with the forces that underpin our perception of the natural world. This work continues my exploration of how ancient methods can intersect with contemporary ideas, transforming both in the process.
