The pixel is the language of our times. The grid is the logical structure for that language.
We have daily encounters with this pairing, from our computer screens, to our televisions, to the newspaper on our doorstep. Essential Information is an exhibition set up to examine the fundamentals about imagery and how we get it to work. George Seurat was an artist that used science to try to answer similar questions about imagery. Formally, Seurat was about the science of painting, essentially creating a style of art that could be theoretically done by anyone. Seurat made extensive notes about how to achieve the right effects, the right colours. He was obsessed with perfecting this pointillist technique. I have revisited the structure of his work to address some of the same concerns but through a contemporary lens. The pixel is an obvious reference to technology and by using Seurat’s imagery, we can see a different way to use optical blending to achieve a similar result. My use of the grid also references its historical importance in painting from the organization of imagery on the surface, to a minimalistic reference, to a structure that references the colour chart paintings of Ellsworth Kelly and Gerhard Richter.
Seurat’s pointillism is essentially the language of our modern technology, it works the same way the human eye does, through optical blending. “How would he have done it today?” That question began my foray into the investigation of the works of Seurat and solidified my belief that paintings must be experienced to be understood. It is when you let yourself look twice in the same direction that you might see something for the first time.
