FIGURING LIGHT 2009

When viewed from a distance the surfaces of Duncan Bullen’s drawings seem to move like wind rippled grass, or tide sculpted sand, shivering with luminous energy as they tease the eye with forms and colours that constantly fall in and out of focus – their proffered haloes of iridescence defying our attempts to grasp them. But stand in the artist’s space – at arms length to the gesso surface – and these nebulous, intriguing effects disappear. In their place we are confronted by something more tangible and physical – grids and chequer boards of individually drawn dots that cover the subtly tinted gesso surface with a fine net of colour… Each has its own distinctive quality, … But, however fascinating and compelling these dots are, we are soon drawn to step back and find the tipping point of wonder where the physical mechanics of the work vanish into a midst of coloured light… these drawings are a contained space of wonder in which the mesh of coloured dots drag the ineffable, intangible presence of light into the physical reality of this world to playfully dance before our eyes.… Bullen’s drawings remind us, even when we have uncovered its mechanics and discovered its physical properties, colour still brings us back to wander in wonder and marvel in mystery. The coloured marks that activate these gesso surfaces generate instances of the insubstantial, the inexplicable, the mysterious…

Richard Davey extract from ‘Figuring Light: Colour and the Intangible. 

Djanogly Gallery, Nottingham, Uk

https://www.lakesidearts.org.uk/exhibitions/event/1265/figuring-light.html