FULL CIRCLE

Following on from BIG ART and Size Matters, FULL CIRCLE is the third in a call out series by World of Glass, to artists stipulating either size or shapes rather than subject matter. In various mediums, artists have used the format of the circle to create, frame and challenge. 2D art, and especially painting, is (and has been) most commonly seen in rectangles. This exhibition asks to what extent a circular format alters one’s idea of what it is to behold a work. Is it comforting or disturbing? Do we feel at ease or in search of a straight edge? For this exhibition I exhibited the small painting, Rail (oil on panel, 2019), which was the first completed painting within an ongoing series of works exploring the tondo format. This arose from a desire to decentre the image within the frame, to rethink compositional alignment, and to circumvent the modernist unease at navigating corners. I wanted, also, to prevent a simple juxtaposition of panels – something that had been important to my practice for some years prior to this exhibition, as evidenced by the extended series of diptychs on wood – and to return the work to a condition of autonomy; something that the circle seems apt to provide. Hannah Billinge and Paul Cousins conceived of the exhibition