The Gates of Apophenia,
22 50x50x50cm boxes
Bosse & Baum Gallery, 2019
Photos Damian Griffiths
The Gates of Apophenia consists of 22 boxes and draws on the imagery of my tarot deck. The work developed from my performance Lessness, Still Quorum and Unreasonable Silence. Each box interprets one of the major arcana cards through the arrangement of repeated sculptural forms creating architectural structures and abstract geometric compositions accompanied by fairytale paraphernalia and familiar or mysterious symbols. The sculptures are made using a variety of materials including ceramic, Jesmonite, cardboard, textiles, and resin. Their surfaces are roughly formed and richly pigmented in saturated hues of pink, purple, yellow, green, and ghostly white. Stripped of the tarot’s traditional human figures, the work explores how objects and spatial configurations alone might evoke spiritual resonance or suggest narrative. Underpinning my approach was the term apophenia which is used to describe human tendency to perceive connections and meaning in unrelated things. The Gates of Apophenia is an imagined threshold between two ways of perceiving, one rooted in rational, evidence-based thinking whilst simultaneously employing esoteric behaviour in a ritualistic impulse to influence matters outside of my control.
