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Keith Clancy - 06
Keith Clancy comments ;-
When people ask me what I paint I usually answer that I paint stripes, thousands of them, as if ''the stripe'' were the ''subject matter'' of my work. True enough but not the whole story as the stripes you see are merely the means for presenting the structures which are true ''subject matter'' of my work. The works in this exhibition do not represent anything other than themselves. They simply seek to present a set of complex structural relations that hold between the parts of each panel and the whole and the relations that hold between the individual panels and the whole.
It would be simpler to say that I paint music, as the habits of thought and the structural processes I use quite naturally in my visual work are identical to those I find in the music I love and the music I write. I have composed since my teenage years and in some ways the presence of what I would call musical thinking in my work is what makes these works possible.
The task of the works in this exhibition was to drive as much complexity and variety as possible from an intentionally restricted, even simplistic, set of basic elements via permutation, translation and substitution.
Accordingly ''(per)mutations'' comprises 3 series of works all of which derive from a single sequence of 5 colours - vermillion (A), turquoise (B) , pink (C), lime (D) and violet (E) - and a sequence of 5 proportions - 1,2,3,4 and 5 units.
''(per)mutations I'' is a single narrow panel, exactly 1/5th the width of the others, presenting the original sequence of 5 colours and 5 proportions in two alternating sequences. A sequence of 1,2,3,4 and 5 1/16ths of and inch is alterated with the retrograde of the sequence forming a palidromic sequence as follows; 5 1 4 2 3 3 2 4 1 5. At the same time the sequence of colours is alternated with a version of itself where the last colour becomes the first as follows; 5 1 4 2 3 3 2 4 1 5. At the same time the sequence of colours is alternated with a version of itself where the last colour becomes the first as follows; A e B a C b D c E d. A symmetrical system of proportions is subject to interference from an asymmetrical system of colour.
''(per)mutations III'' is a set of 3 panels presenting a structure derived from the recursive permutation of all 5 colours but only featuring 3 of the 5 proportions, where the proportions are expressed in units of 1/18th of an inch.
The 5th colour is not subject to permutation - it is simply repeated regularly as if it were a ''background'' while the other 4 colours are presented in shifting relationships against the 5th. Conversely each panel of ''(per)mutations 5'' presents only 2 colours ''locked'' in a simple alternating sequence ABA BAB ABA etc against a third invarient colour in 5 overlapping subsets of 3 colours each derived from the original sequence but the invarient colour structure is subject to visual inteference from a proportional structure that permutates the original series of proportions.
The permutations used in all of the works of this exhibition are what I call ''recursive axial'' permutations. If one takes a sequence of ABCD the first axial permutation takes the form CBDA, the second is DBAC and the third returns the original sequence. By means of a simple substitution code (treating B as if it were A, C as if it were B etc) the sequence can be expanded, almost as if it were being slowed down. It then displays the same symmetrical and inversional relations between its larger parts as between its smaller parts.
The original sequence is itself further extended by means of alternating one colour with the next as follows: ABA BCB CDC DCD CBC BDB etc. Each is presented surrounding and being surrounded by each of the other colours at least once. As the permutation ''locks'' the 2nd colour in the same position certain colours will appear in a regular rhythmic position for a certain passage of the whole while others will change around the momentary stability offered by this ''locking''.
''(per)'' mutations V'' is a set of 5 panels presenting a structure derived from the structures presented in ''(per)mutations III ''. This series of 5 panels presents the same structures presented in the series of 3 panels but expresses those structures in terms of the proportions of one stripe to the next while at the same time ''locking'' 2 colours into a fixed alternation against a regularly recurring 3rd. In brief the colour structure of ''(per)mutations III'' becomes a spatial and proportional structure, as if a sequence of pitches were translated into rythmic proportions.
Despite the fairly high-impact ''optical'' effect of some of these works the visual effect of the finished work is not necessarily the goal of the work. I am usually quite surprised by the eventual effect of one of my works, despite the fact that they are carefully and fastidiously planned.
Keith Clancy was born in Sydney, Australia in 1968 and studied fine arts and Philosophy at the University of Sydney. He taught the history and theory of design at the University of Western Sydney for 4 years from 1991. He moved to New Zealand in 2004.
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