Membrane Art® is a practice of using the curvature of surfaces (canvases) to initiate events then flatten it out for observation.

My curved canvases are a way of initiating events. Distributing distinct expressions and reciprocal marks to the surface geometry, from all sides and angles, in ways that cannot be achieved on the flat picture plane – yet the results of the work are always presented in the flat form. A metaphor for how we observe.

Since 2004, I’ve been evolving this aesthetic thought. A style of abstraction that is deeply rooted in the present context of a multi-dimensional universe and the way nature itself could be.

Undulating linen canvas showing paint pourings.

Membrane Art exhibition: Adelaide Convention Centre, 2014

Preamble (my thought processes)

I find it a worthwhile challenge trying to imagine a new kind of abstraction, beyond what has already been done. For me Membrane Art® is an open door to endless possibilities. Heavily dependent upon the geometric surfaces (nature) which underpins it – yet, in the end, you never truly know what you’re going to be looking at until you unravel it.

Recognising that the surface membrane creates the basic structure for the artwork is only the beginning. Results can either echo, connect and/or entangle themselves in ways that cannot be achieved in our flat dimensional world. It shows that the markings have come from somewhere else – where expression and sculpture unite — which is why I consider this approach neither painting nor sculpture.

Reciprocal marks

Creating a different kind of abstraction is born out of a need to sculpturally define our multi-dimensional universe. It shows a world that we cannot observe directly, yet we know it exists. So the meaning may appear latent but the premise and execution of the artwork is far from it. Like a particle that can appear in many places at once, reciprocal markings appear as unique expressions that provide content and dynamic relationships.

There certainly is a sense of freedom by working in this way. Creating a gestural response that is deeply-rooted in the present context of quantum physics yet not bound by its mathematical theorems, provides an artistic licence to explore.

The truth is we are limited by our reality — we remain trapped on the surface of a flat universe. Although, we may try to ‘jazz-it-up’, over conceptualise and garner attention with meaningful issues, it is not what interests me as an artist. I prefer to allow expression to exist through provoking a different kind of beauty. To allow it to naturally manifest and contradict known assumptions.

An aesthetic for the quantum era

How can life (art) evolve out of no information? Is it the void that draws you in? As each artwork unfolds, I ask myself these questions as I analyse each resulting mark. There is a different kind of sensitivity that harbors in the expressions that is different to the ‘violent’ method deployed by Lucio Fontana¹. An artist who rejected the traditional constraints of painting and sculpture and embraced paradoxes, destroying physical and intellectual traditions in order to create new discoveries. My drill hole and saw-cut approach (quantum brushstrokes) is inspired by his ‘discovery of the hole‘ as an aesthetic mark in itself.

However, rather than opening up the space to the beyond, my own discovery is that the reciprocating marks, created on a curve, keeps us fixated to the 2D picture plane. For me, this is a new kind of aesthetic language that speaks to the quantum era that is upon us. A kind of yearning to be more accepting of our place in a multi-dimensional universe.

As we move into the quantum era, painting today needs possibilities, to go beyond derivative and issue-based ideas, and discover a beauty that it can call its own².

¹ Lucio Fontana on Artsy

²Observer article: Are Painters Out of Ideas?