Artefactory is another translated image from my sketchbook that uses geometrical construction to suggest notions of purity or divinity in a collapsing world. I once responded to a visitor in my studio, who wanted to know what the overarching drive in my work is about, that “I am looking for a new sublime, a new form of beauty.” Overblown as this might be, it’s a shoe that fits well-enough. I will run with this for a while!

I have rarely used the technique to produce this form of perspective. It differs from most of my other works in that I have used what is properly called an isometric perspective. I equally divided each circle by its radius, rather than using 30 and 60 degree angled set squares commonly employed in architectural rendering. This technique is best known in Coptic Christian and Islamic Art, of which I am utterly fascinated by and yet feel the need to approach through the lens of architectural language, as well as European metaphysical and art historical traditions, for obvious reasons. My use of the geometry, once again, goes a bit against a monotheistic intent, in that the construction of the frame contains or arrests the infinite progress of perfect squares (in which all sides are equal length).

I do think there is much to benefit from facing the finite character of our world, our consciousness, or means of production, rather than continue to blindly follow the neo-liberal drone of “anything is possible” or “the only limit is yourself!” etc. At the end of the day, I wanted to put a factory on a plinth, under glass, and designate it as an artefact of a previous and long-extinct culture.