Small Touching Squares Painting 1998

Curator: Right, let’s dive into Peter Davies’s "Small Touching Squares Painting," held here at the Tate. Visually, it's… well, it's quite something, isn’t it? Editor: It's hypnotic! My eyes want to focus, but they keep slipping. It feels like looking at a very detailed topographical map of a strangely colored planet. Curator: Davies is really playing with perception here. The size alone—over two and a half meters tall and more than four meters wide—amplifies that effect. Editor: All those tiny squares… they feel like individual lives, each slightly different, yet all part of a bigger pattern. The herringbone layout makes me think of ancient textiles or even mosaics. Curator: Exactly! This constant shifting and reforming echoes archetypal symbols of flow, like rivers or streams, and the repetition gives it a meditative feel. Davies is clearly tapping into something primal. Editor: Perhaps that's why it's so compelling. It’s a very interesting piece, it evokes a deep sense of movement. Curator: Indeed, food for thought on our perception of space and pattern.