The Double Motive of the Circle
The Double Motive of the Circle by Todd Hainline
The ongoing project started with a set of circular ink and water drawings. As the first one of the series was being made it was recorded with video. Later that work was also recorded as it was burnt. The ashes that remained were added to the second Double Motive of the Circle series. With each series, the ink is altered and the works alter.
Natural forces of gravity, air, heat, light, and fire come together in the images. The ink-ash drawings and large video projection give permanence to ephemeral moments and invite the viewer into engaging with the artist’s process.
Whether a circle is perceived or visualized the idea of roundness is present, which distinguishes it from any other phenomena. The circle facilitates fluidity, avoiding stoppage and stagnation. And gravity within the tight flat paper surfaces gives agency to the differentiated viscosity of the water, ink, and ash that slowly drift accordingly to their own natures.
Burning the work contributes to the cyclical process. Fire purifies, cleanses, and returns materials back to the earth and atmosphere. The ash mixture of each drawing series evolves as works are burned and the collected ashes are added to the ink. This ongoing project will be in an unfolding state of change.
When creating work in the studio, what an artist sees resulting during process has a visual dialogue that is often sheltered from viewers yet is has an aesthetic of its own. The video of the Double Motive of the Circle is work that makes the intimate and ephemeral moments of artistic production become a visible shared experience.
Mixed Media Work
Folded Space
Mixed media polyptych (India ink, graphite, gesso, silver ink, grass, pinecone, collaged drawing, acrylic)
100cm x 150cm
Folded Space unites the microscopic with the telescopic. I work from images of cells and planets. It ist extraordinary how a tiny cell when enlarged can appear to look like distant planets. The bottom center work brings space that is uninterrupted by optical devices, into the fold over spaces. Liquid materials controlled to a degree, organically and coincidentally shifted due to their natural properties. Systematic coincidence is present in the work in both material and the meaning while locking down ephemeral moments.
LIGO Diggers, 1h 30m looped LIGO Diggers is a sustained moving image made from a hand altered projection of actors from the early 20th century. The work is layered with sounds that were generated up to a billion years ago. Transparent objects were held up with human hands to interrupt the projection, altering and fusing the mediums that create an experience of temporary transcendence of time and space. The video fuses recurring circular imagery with sounds of cells, planets, and gravitational waves of two black holes colliding. It creates an ethereal space invoking a desire to leave consciousness for another higher-level one.
Ligo Diggers installation.
3 x 3 meter room, projection, covered walls with mylar.