Optic

The middle of the twentieth century produced an extraordinary confidence in geometry. Abstraction had already removed the need for pictures to represent anything recognisable. The next temptation was to see just how much could be achieved with line, repetition and contrast alone.

Op Art pushed that curiosity into altogether stranger territory. Artists including Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely discovered that rigid mathematical systems could produce remarkably unstable experiences. Surfaces seemed to pulse, shift or recede. The eye could be persuaded to see movement where none existed.

Optic comes from my fascination with that contradiction. I like the idea that something constructed with absolute precision can produce an experience that feels anything but certain. Order becomes the means of creating disruption.

There is also something wonderfully optimistic about the period. Art, graphics, textiles, furniture and architecture seemed increasingly willing to borrow from one another. Pattern could be intelligent, provocative and playful at the same time. Decoration did not have to disappear simply because modernism had arrived. It could speak a new visual language.

Optic sits within that conversation. It is less interested in depicting anything than in making the act of looking slightly more interesting. The geometry provides the discipline; perception does the rest.

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