Work In Progress: 'The Castle' Paintings

 

All Images: Work in Progress ('The Castle' Paintings), Acrylics & Mixed Media or Acrylics Only on Panel,
60 cm x 60 cm, July 2022

The images here represent a group of paintings (or hybrid mixed-media pieces, technically - in the case of the first two), which have all been simultaneously in play over recent months.

Despite the superficial differences in approach, it shouldn't be too much of a stretch to recognise that these four pieces are all actually variations on the same subject. Indeed, it's one they share  with 'The Castle 1' (completed in April of this year). Perhaps less obviously - they can also be regarded as tangential off-shoots from the larger 'Territory [Lateral Flow]' painting that I completed in February.

If this slow-but-steady accumulation of work can be said to represent some form of map (of time - and of numerous layered subjective associations, as well as of actual delineated, physical terrain), then it is one which is constructed only as a consequence of potentially open-ended exploration. It might be said to be in a state of constant becoming - just as repeated visits to (or through) the same locations reveal a potentially limitless sequence of experiences, associations and emotional responses. It soon emerges that there is no 'the same' about it - however familiar the route may superficially appear. The intention is not to follow any pre-existing chart - be that as a progress from A to B on a spatial plane, or in pursuit of a priori thematic/theoretical destinations.

Any traveller's tales, chance encounters, or indeed - lessons learned from all this, may (or may not) be recounted at some undetermined future date. In fact, it is my suspicion that the exploration of perpetually unravelling loose ends might prove far more revealing than any serious desire to tie them up.  On a spherical planet (and indeed - in a universe in which time, space and information are all fluidly connected) can there not only ever be one map, in reality?

Whilst each of the four pieces shown here might be seen to have reached a certain level of 'completion', my own feeling is that they are all still very much in a state of immanence. However, in the light of at least some of the above, it seems perfectly reasonable to show them in their current state. If each can be said to have already undergone a degree of mediation, my hunch is that they can all stand yet more. 

Also, for anyone who may already be joining-up the literary dots: it's only fair to remember that K. wasn't exactly one for reaching definitive conclusions either...