8.10.89 1989

Curator: Taking a look at "8.10.89" by Sean Scully—created in 1989 using mixed media—what captures your attention first? Editor: Immediately, it feels grounded, almost architectural, with these heavy blocks. The subdued palette, except for that patch of vibrant orange, gives it a somber but solid character, like a sturdy building on a cloudy day. Curator: Yes, and I'd add that these hues and blocks of colour create a profound resonance—not necessarily a sad resignation, but a thoughtful and gentle echo to my core. How the grid sits slightly offset really excites my imagination too. I love its off-kilter beauty. Editor: Precisely! The asymmetry really breaks down the predictability of geometric abstraction, and you know how much I love that tension. This almost casual placement encourages a viewer to decode the underlying structural relationships. We could say the dark swathes represent the unconsciousness, an opening which yields the brighter potential from which it emanates? Curator: Beautifully put, I hadn't thought about it that way. What the orange bars make me consider—that pop of intensity—is how they float like stacked dreams. Maybe even caged hopes trying to burst forth... Or just to signal the dynamism hidden within the heavier forms. Editor: Perhaps, yes. Speaking materially, the roughness apparent in the media also undermines perfection, that slight amateur hand exposes what might lie in plain sight but be glossed over through the application of finer materials. A window or conduit. That, or even better - steps that permit an elevation between one register to another. Curator: Oh, I completely see what you mean about the elevation between registers! I'll think about Scully's hand more when I spend time with this art now. It gives it such warmth to counterpoint its formal language, something palpably tangible. Editor: Agreed! It's the interplay of the intentional and the accidental, and a fine line between geometric abstraction and evocative emotional space that makes "8.10.89" so compelling, I think. Curator: Well, for me I really connect with its simple statement as if my heart has suddenly been laid out and arranged across a board, somehow! What a statement it makes about balance and expression.