Dimensions: unconfirmed: 1499 x 1499 x 152 mm
Copyright: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Curator: Marc Vaux's "SQ 6 (1)," presents us with a large square construction, primarily white, delineated with subtle lines of color. Editor: It feels restrained, almost clinical. The colorful lines hint at something more playful, but the overall effect is quite formal. Curator: The square is such a loaded form. It suggests order, rationality—qualities often associated with mid-century modernism and the institutional spaces that championed it. Editor: Yet, the hand-made quality is evident. The lines aren’t perfectly straight, the colors are slightly off. This imperfection humanizes the piece. I can't help but think about how even the most rational structures are built upon human intentions. Curator: Indeed, those delicate colored lines also hold symbolic power. Color, across cultures, is associated with emotions, memory, even social status. Perhaps Vaux is subtly disrupting the starkness with cultural coding. Editor: Ultimately, it's a study of contrasts: rigidity versus fluidity, order versus spontaneity. It invites the viewer to contemplate the tensions inherent in these opposing forces.
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Vaux was born in Swindon, and attended the local School of Art before entering the Slade School. He has exhibited widely in the United Kingdom and abroad. He has also taught art, becoming principal lecturer in painting at the Central School in 1973. This wall mounted relief is constructed from aluminium tubing painted with cellulose, together with wood battens painted with acrylic paint. It is designed to be viewed from different angles. The work explores scale, colour, light and the relationship between work and spectator. Gallery label, September 2004