Heaven and Hell

Heaven and Hell are two very large-scale paintings (see the Catalogue of Jotakin Outoa pages 34 and 35) that were made as a result of a commission, which began as a collaboration with the Visual Theory Group at Imperial College London. The initial concern was to develop a digital application in relation to the moving image but my interest shifted the research towards its potential application to the syntax of painting and the still image. The two works produced from this process explore and develop a system known as Single Image Random Dot Stereograms (sirds). This method has had a more poular representation in what has been known as ‘magic eye’ images where an apparent stereoscopic effect emerges from a single two-dimensional image without any viewing device. The opportunities offered by a creative use of this method fitted closely to my concern with optical effects and the ‘mesmeric’ in painting.
In the two works Heaven and Hell, the painting and all its attendant associations are digitally reconfigured as optical pattern. The Initial confrontation is that of visual noise while a willed shift in perception momentarily disembodies sight and opens into what seem to be convincing space of a different kind.