Comparative Form in White(Rotation, CW and CCW)
by Bianca Chang
Comparative Form in White (Rotation, CW and CCW)
Our eyes have become accustomed to the daily inundation of complex moving images. The Light Maps works, two of which are featured here, are my effort to conjure — or at least imagine — a visual quietness in which the fundamental distinctions of perception can find a territory to be examined. The works have been formulated as a response to various mathematical ideas that govern the world around us — Euclidian geometry, the golden proportion, probability, and chance. If it is true that mathematics is a universal language, my hope is that the sculptures can successfully allow abstraction to remain accessible through this intrinsic understanding. My aim is to avoid sentimentality or assigning a social, cultural or historical viewpoint — in this way I hope that the works become non-referential and self-descriptive to the viewer, inviting them to recognize personal states of purity and beauty. To create these works I hand-cut each sheet of paper layer-by-layer to reveal a form, or rather an absence of form, within the sheets. This process is calculated and methodic. The resulting three-dimensional counter-reliefs discreetly alter the materiality of the paper — the sculptures are simultaneously fragile and resolutely concrete. They are designed to react to the light existing within a space. This is my take on traditional psaligraphic image-making — one that relies on a disciplined fidelity to a mathematical execution rather than unconstrained artistic flair. The works blur the line between two- and three-dimensionality, and, I hope, create a moment of stillness that allows the viewer to meditate on the subtleties of form and perception.
Bianca Chang is a self-taught designer and artist living and working in Sydney, Australia. Having participated in numerous group exhibitions, she recently held her first solo show, Light Maps, at A-M Gallery, Sydney. Bianca is currently developing a body of work in ceramics and teaches design at the University of Technology, Sydney.
Originally appeared in the online supplement to the Beyond Category issue 43.2-44.1