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Spencer T Dee
Artist Statement

Art making is often a personal event, but is involved in a much larger conversation. It is a global assemblage.  The act of assembly transgresses materials, concepts and politics bring together a multi-disciplinary mosaic of people and events. An artistic philosophy is much the same as upholding personal character philosophy. Actions are definitive. They are as expressive as making a cup of tea, appreciating it and valuing that time alone or with others that define its purpose. The gesture of making a simple cup represents the ideal of that which came before it. Its taste is decided before the act of preparation, but only practice and skill can ensure success. This is an ideal with deep routed psycho-physiological effects. Its present state, the cup I make today, is cultural alchemy (also heated up once in the microwave). Its execution is as political and privileged as my heritage, and as such, has the ability to win and lose heart. Once again, its action is definitive of both me and my audience. The cup of tea acts as a trope. It is easily replaceable by varying traditions and sacraments but maintains and invisible and immeasurable gesture. As a child its effects were nurturing; its effects now are nature. I can define something of myself by this gesture, but with sincerity and intent others may define me in the same light. This metaphor is the most elementary state in the memory of personal creation.
There is one underlying philosophy that has brought me to this conclusion. It is the works of Jacque Derrida on Deconstruction that offer some device towards this effect. This is often known as the creation of meaning through difference. This involves destruction, disordering, disarrangement and re-arrangement. As an artist I create a vocabulary that operates in the same method. When a colour, form, etc, is represented, its meaning is determined via juxtaposition or difference. In the media of painting, my objective, being limited to colourful mud, is the difference of sensation. This is credited to structural linguistics. Meaning is present within every gesture placed in my work, but its source is indeterminate.
Sensation as information is highly discursive, and in effect concepts tend to be as well. This is a Synaesthesia that manifests as an undetermined response when I occupy or attend as particular event. This is known as the hyperactive production of conventional metaphor. Through repetition and the involuntary act of concisions placement I extensively and expressively create a plastic vocabulary. The aim, trough recognition, is the creation of an elegant lexis. This is a language where its symbols are below sensation, below threshold, but brought together are essential and highly potent. Sensation as information and metaphor is a task to measure and recognize.
Colour is central to production in my practice. Its psycho-physical effects as harmony has been researched since the time of Aristotle, but truly started in the mid-17th century with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) and his Theory of Colours published in 1810. It was continued diligently by Chevreurl, Fechner and later Isaac Newton. From here we move into the vital foundation of my practice. We find colours are altered by their relationships with other colours and thusly are perceived entirely differently by the viewer. With two or more colours, these essential differences can be better described as constellations within a colour system. These systems usually lead to the conclusion that certain constellations within a system provide colour harmony. This harmony is similar to that experienced in music. The parallelism between the two is unavoidable but appropriate. Albers describes this by comparing musical structure as well as colour structure.

“(The) juxtaposition within a musical composition is perceived within a prescribed sequence only. Vertically, so to say, one tone, or several simultaneously, sound or a varying but restricted length of time. Horizontally, the tones fallow each other, perhaps not in a straight line, but of necessity in a prescribed order and in one direction - forward. Tones herd earlier fade, and those farther back disappear, vanish. We do not hear them backward.
Colours appear connected predominately in space. Therefore, as constellations they can be seen in a direction and at any speed. And as they remain, we can return to them repeatedly and in many ways”.

Chromatic- abstraction is firmly rooted within my practice. Vancouver, in recent times, has even embraced it. The success of my goals has been measured by those essential characters that have made their way into my life. I hope to reproduce the both the change, how many are now experiencing it, and the history of where we are coming from.

(Source: spencertdee)

Posted 12 months ago with 3 notes