Aran 2005

Sean Scully's photograph 'Aran' captures a stone structure on the Aran Islands, and immediately I think of process, the laying down, stone by stone. It's all about layering and that's how I think about process in my own work. The physicality of the stones, how they're stacked, it speaks volumes. The texture is rough, the surface is uneven, but there’s a sense of order, a rhythm to it. Looking closely, you can almost feel the weight of each stone, the labor involved in placing it just so. This one stone, just above the middle, has a slightly darker tone than the rest and somehow it draws the eye and holds the whole thing together. Scully, mainly known for his paintings of stacked rectangles, is echoing his own work in this composition. It's like he's saying, "Look, it's all around us, this way of building, of seeing." It’s a reminder that art isn’t just about what’s on the canvas, it’s about how we see and engage with the world, embracing all its beautiful ambiguities.