Monotony - University of Derby Sept O5

julian Broadhurst

The Melbourne Festival Pictures

Drowningcircle Contemporary Fine Art

I have devoted my Artistic Career to the study of Geometric Art, on the premise that Geometry is Elemental to an understanding of shape; which is Elemental to an understanding of Form; which is in turn, what we reconstruct in our minds when we say we say we understand, or apprehend what we see. Shape being then Elemental to space, in this case that being that most peculiar place, the Picture Plane.

The Elemental of a thing is that which is necessary and Given of it. If we presume a circle to have an infinite number of sides, then the triangle is the simplest Shape that will enclose space, hence it is a primary constituent, or Element, of Visual Space. Hence the Art or Aesthetic of Elements would need only black line to delineate identifiable Shapes or Elements. This then is the Art of Elementalism. As the Marks on a page it is an Aesthetic of Pure Shape, but in the worldly perception of perspective, of volume and dimension, of behind and ‘in-front-of’, we have an Apprehension of Form. In this case we have an Art prior to representation, since at no point dose it completely represent, but it is Formal. Hence it is an Aesthetic of Pure Form.

Elementalism though is an Art, not a Science, where the Artist Plays with notional Form and the Mis-apprehension of Form as when I fool the eye into perceiving what is actually not there. Think of the primary illusion of representation, that a circle becomes a Sphere. Elementalism is about Composition, in the way that music is, I write String Quartet for black line. My works are performed in your mind when you look at them. It is simply the degree to which I ask you do this, that Is fundamental to ’This intelligent Art’.