My latest body of work, “The Tyranny of Sunk Costs,” is primarily an exploration of the theme of duality. The conceptual genesis of the work was appropriately two-fold:
Firstly, I had a growing awareness that my own personality is to some degree split; not in a clinical sense, but there are certainly opposing parts of my character which can cause internal conflict. I’m fascinated by states of consciousness and the points at which a person can transition from one mental state to another, whether triggered by internal factors like mental illness or external stimuli such drugs and alcohol. It’s intriguing to explore these moments during which one may briefly inhabit a different persona.
Second was the observation that my internal duality mirrored a feeling that contemporary society is ever more polarised, resulting in increasingly binary opinions and a lack of nuanced discourse.
My latest body of work, “The Tyranny of Sunk Costs,” is primarily an exploration of the theme of duality. The conceptual genesis of the work was appropriately two-fold:
Firstly, I had a growing awareness that my own personality is to some degree split; not in a clinical sense, but there are certainly opposing parts of my character which can cause internal conflict. I’m fascinated by states of consciousness and the points at which a person can transition from one mental state to another, whether triggered by internal factors like mental illness or external stimuli such drugs and alcohol. It’s intriguing to explore these moments during which one may briefly inhabit a different persona.
Second was the observation that my internal duality mirrored a feeling that contemporary society is ever more polarised, resulting in increasingly binary opinions and a lack of nuanced discourse.
In terms of my work, over the course of my career as a photographer what increasingly drives me is the study of light and geometry, the two main structural components, rather than literal visual representation. A deeply profound experience at a James Turrell exhibit – in which the viewer is enclosed in a white sphere and exposed to flashing light, inducing intense dynamic visual hallucination – truly opened my eyes to the power of light, geometry and human perception and realigned my own artistic vision.
This experience inspired me to explore these themes in collaboration with lighting design studio Haberdashery, conceiving and creating light sculptures and then photographing them for exhibitions at both the Serena Morton and Hoxton galleries – but I wanted to push these ideas further.
Inspired by the work of Bridget Riley, I began to create my own rhythmical geometric sculptures, originally with the sole aim of photographing them. I soon found that the sculptures themselves interested me more, so then decided to depart from photography altogether. I found further inspiration in the relief work of Ben Nicholson, the graphic paintings of Bauhaus artists Josef Albers and Johannes Itten and the rigid formality of Mondrian’s later paintings, as well as the work of the American minimalists, particularly Dan Flavin and Carl Andre. I have also drawn influences from Islamic art and architecture – which has fascinated me since a childhood visit to the Alhambra in Granada – and its inherent spiritual belief in the underlying mathematical and geometric structure of creation. I wanted this work to pay homage to these disparate influences without falling into meaningless derivative patterns and felt I needed to add my personal perspective to the discourse.
The breakthrough came when I connected my thoughts on duality with binary coding. This enabled me to create the guiding framework for this body of work. Each one is a three-dimensional, geometric expression of the 8-bit binary code that makes up the letters of its title. The use of the geometric positioning to denote the binary ‘1’ and ‘0’ creates its own rhythm and order, whilst the arrhythmic juxtaposition of these forms and colours creates an unsettling energy and subtle sense of disquiet which is often explicit in the titles.
While the underlying geometry is coded and planned within rigid parameters on a computer, each element is laboriously hand-cast and finished, creating a tension between the purity of the initial digital concept and the humanity of the inevitably imperfect analogue finish.
The titles are inspired by both political and personal influences from film, poetry, music and literature, centred around themes of metaphor, allegory, contradiction, paradox and appropriation.
The physicality of the works touches on multiple themes of duality: simplicity and complexity; transience and permanence; chaos and order; individuality and the collective; perfection and imperfection and, perhaps most pertinently, man and machine.
As a final point, the use of the pseudonym Hooley (my nickname) is not an attempt to create mystery but a two-fold device, representing an alter-ego or split persona, as well as a practical way to separate this work from my photographic career.
Hooley
b. 19.06.1972
(Gemini)
In terms of my work, over the course of my career as a photographer what increasingly drives me is the study of light and geometry, the two main structural components, rather than literal visual representation. A deeply profound experience at a James Turrell exhibit – in which the viewer is enclosed in a white sphere and exposed to flashing light, inducing intense dynamic visual hallucination – truly opened my eyes to the power of light, geometry and human perception and realigned my own artistic vision.
This experience inspired me to explore these themes in collaboration with lighting design studio Haberdashery, conceiving and creating light sculptures and then photographing them for exhibitions at both the Serena Morton and Hoxton galleries – but I wanted to push these ideas further.
Inspired by the work of Bridget Riley, I began to create my own rhythmical geometric sculptures, originally with the sole aim of photographing them. I soon found that the sculptures themselves interested me more, so then decided to depart from photography altogether. I found further inspiration in the relief work of Ben Nicholson, the graphic paintings of Bauhaus artists Josef Albers and Johannes Itten and the rigid formality of Mondrian’s later paintings, as well as the work of the American minimalists, particularly Dan Flavin and Carl Andre. I have also drawn influences from Islamic art and architecture – which has fascinated me since a childhood visit to the Alhambra in Granada – and its inherent spiritual belief in the underlying mathematical and geometric structure of creation. I wanted this work to pay homage to these disparate influences without falling into meaningless derivative patterns and felt I needed to add my personal perspective to the discourse.
The breakthrough came when I connected my thoughts on duality with binary coding. This enabled me to create the guiding framework for this body of work. Each one is a three-dimensional, geometric expression of the 8-bit binary code that makes up the letters of its title. The use of the geometric positioning to denote the binary ‘1’ and ‘0’ creates its own rhythm and order, whilst the arrhythmic juxtaposition of these forms and colours creates an unsettling energy and subtle sense of disquiet which is often explicit in the titles.
While the underlying geometry is coded and planned within rigid parameters on a computer, each element is laboriously hand-cast and finished, creating a tension between the purity of the initial digital concept and the humanity of the inevitably imperfect analogue finish.
The titles are inspired by both political and personal influences from film, poetry, music and literature, centred around themes of metaphor, allegory, contradiction, paradox and appropriation.
The physicality of the works touches on multiple themes of duality: simplicity and complexity; transience and permanence; chaos and order; individuality and the collective; perfection and imperfection and, perhaps most pertinently, man and machine.
As a final point, the use of the pseudonym Hooley (my nickname) is not an attempt to create mystery but a two-fold device, representing an alter-ego or split persona, as well as a practical way to separate this work from my photographic career.
Hooley
b. 19.06.1972
(Gemini)