Circling the Square, attempting to do the impossible, is a good summation of artistic endeavour. We try to express something intangible, personal but for everyone. Something unsayable. Abstract visual art shares this quality especially with music; abstract statements difficult to express in text or words.
The work here has been made over the last five years and is influenced by my work with musicians to create graphic scores, (visual images that direct improvised music). I have always used grids, and these are still apparent in the formal composition of the work but circles, ellipses, and semi-circles, take centre stage. Squares appear only as the negative of the circles cut from them. These are playful, abstract pieces which allow me to use bold colour combinations and create movement across the paper. Printed from birch plywood, the grain of the wood intercedes as shapes and colours overlap multiple times.
Some prints are carefully composed, Nodding to Cornelius, (a nod to the avant-garde musician and composer, Cornelius Cardew), and Untitled, (Three Ellipses), but then I take the blocks and improvise as I print them in new colours and combinations. In this way, I reflect the musicians I work with and respond to, both composing and improvising at different moments, inking the blocks by hand and printing them multiple times as I react to each new layer of colour as it appears.
During lockdown, I was unable to complete Untitled (Three Ellipses) but animated the image instead to music played by my partner, George Burt, and mastered by me. It expresses much of what I hope is in the prints themselves.
Jo Ganter