The Grids, The Bothy, Cirencester, 23 January - 23 April 2024

Press Release

‘They grow, and there is no claim made for their ownership; they go through their processes, and there is no expectation. The work is accomplished, and there is no resting in it.’

Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

The Grid Series took six months to make. Following my time at the RCA, I sojourned in south wales where I endeavoured to make 500 pieces. Pursuing a richness of colour, I made my own paint. On the one hand, I contemplated simplicity and materiality, on the other, complexity and visual richness. My task was to observe two paintings together and to identify the mystery that joins them. This made the words of the Tao Te Ching make perfect sense, but did not stop my smoking habit.

The grids provide a framework within which the colours can be set free from the figurative. Working within this framework, I am investigating the limitless possibilities for alternative combinations: of paintings, patterns, and colours. I am also, however, seeking out colour combinations that hold my attention: Grey and ocher, black and white, red and green, blue and yellow.

I am interested in how a grid obtains meaning, from the bars on a prison door or window, to architecture, glass and metal. Like the buildings of Richards Roger. They make me consider the denial that I may or may not feel. The unnatural straight lines suggest a denial of humanity. Grids are psychological; Impenetrable, restrictive, forbidden, warning, gated, they convey feelings of forever and of rejection. The grid is also stabilising, indicating protection and safety. Painting can be so freeing, and in this system, the painterliness is only just there, it only just exists. This structure denies the freedom of painting, it controls it and exerts a monopoly over the chaos. In 2017, I spent a good few months trying to paint huge abstract paintings and was unsuccessful. Ever since I have been trying to find a way to paint that isn't so open-ended, but maybe I am denying that freedom from myself. The way I make sense of them is that I am teetering on the edge of the creative chaos we all share, but the grid framework protects and prevents me from tumbling off. 

I am aware of the history of the grid in Modern art, and of course of Agnes Martin. Our grids differ however, as where Martin’s grids are tracking an existential enquiry, mine are more wrapped up in the symbolism of colour. Her’s are a Minimalist personal endeavour, mine are founded on the basis of there being magic in colour. I am looking for the mysterious spark that makes the paintings work together. This is the mystery that I wish to soak in.

Rose Arbuthnott studied at Edinburgh university (BA) [2010], and The Royal Drawing School (2010), before completing her postgraduate at the RCA (2023). She is currently a resident artist with MASS, London.