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 how color-splitting space affects our perception and perhaps understanding of it. Specifically an area is tessellated by hexagons that are truncated radially so as to suggest the curve of a sphere. Mirroring the spherical edge another circle is introduced by the inner boundary of an alternating red-blue roulette. The circular "hole" gives way to the suggestion of an opposite (inner) side to the large curve in which the figure ground relationship is reversed.