Christopher Arabadjis

Statement

I begin with a single mark/shape and a rule for how to replicate it - a set of instructions that incorporates a narrow range of choices. All marks are made by hand with no extra tools. If the result looks too homogeneous, a new related mark and rule combination is introduced. The drawings are made using only a red and a blue ballpoint pen. Despite taking great care, mistakes are introduced because the hand/eye/mind system isn't perfect. I have come to understand this inconsistency/error – and not the artist’s intention – as the seed of "creativity." I use such a process because I want not only to understand, but to feel the shifts of the imperfect repetition. Something is learned in the making that cannot be apprehended by simply looking.

Artworks

I was thinking about physical dimensions beyond three - how higher dimensions can be contained (compactified?) in fewer dimensions. And specifically how a 2D piece of real estate - a square - on a flat sheet of paper can "contain" three dimensions as suggested by an octahedron. I thought one could then fill a 2D area with squares/parallelograms that "contain" 3D spaces. And further one could suggest another dimension by orienting some of those parallelograms orthogonally to the others.