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Signs of things to come

This solo exhibition at Ryan Lee Gallery New York focuses on attuned responses to methodically generated chance occurrence, an implicit aspect of Cook’s visual research process developed over 15 years, using graphite powder dissolved in resin and solvents, painted/drawn onto resistant surfaces.

The research for this exhibition was undertaken during an invited residency at Langgeng Foundation, Jogjakarta, Indonesia, 2011, in conjunction with a Singapore iteration of the touring exhibition Dust on the Mirror (curator Tony Godfrey) interrogating surface/illusion with reference to Eastern aesthetics.

The residency examined ‘surface’ by subjecting primed aluminium to indeterminate marks, then evolved using transposed surfaces, collection of pours, splashes, scratches etc. to interrogate Krokatsis’ assertion “By putting ourselves in situations where rationality is forced to give way to instinct, we can learn more about who we are and why we react to things the way we do” (You'll Never Know: Drawing and Random Interference. Walwin, Krokatsis. Hayward Gallery 2006).

This method continued over two years producing incidental works (alongside more figurative enquiries) concluding during a fellowship at Bogliasco Foundation, May 2013. During this residency images were kept free of aesthetic considerations for most of the residency, reversing composer Meyer-Eppler’s definition of ‘aleatory’ (that which is "determined in general but depends on chance in detail" (Statistic and Psychologic Problems of Sound, 1957, p. 55) by allowing chance events to multiply before conscious interpretation began in the final week. This approach deployed the Japanese attitude of karumi (‘lightness of touch’) to prevent overworking, hence references to Eastern calligraphic and landscape notation remain.