Urban E_Scape 32

Dionne Simpson deconstructs spatial information. This painting offers a view of a foggy cityscape, constructed by structures of scaffoldings and cables. Looking more closely, every shape and form is narrowed down to a series of cells.

The artist unweaves the canvas by pulling the threads, a technique inspired from a West African artform. In this multi-layered work, she uses a mix of materials such as wax, hair dye, liquid paint.

Tiny bubbles have formed in the wax. The brown pigment appears stamped onto the canvas and creates its own dotted pattern, showing the weaving imprint of the canvas threads.

The white and ochre cells create a checkerboard design: to the left, the patterns are more irregular, but as the eye moves to the right, cells organize into a more formal sequence and diamond-shaped motif.

Type press letters are contained in the grids, with repetition of words such as VALUE, CREDIT, DESIRE. Letters detach and escape from the words, taking on different meanings. The artist presents us with a conceptual map, one that decodes structures of art, architecture and language.