Kind of Blue

Oil on canvas, 100x100cm, 2016.

In Kind of Blue Nick Gordon uses the principle of modal improvisation - a musical structure based on the intersection of notes in scales rather than chords - to create a vision of the city at night. Light comes into vision suddenly before deeper tones swallow it, temporarily illuminating structures in the play of tone. Graduated shifts of colour give a sense of motion pushing in different directions as if headlights in a timelapse photo taken through a rainy window.

The linear structure of the work is composed of multiple divergent spirals whose proportions are based on the golden ratio. Each arm of each spiral branches into a different variation of the initial structure, creating a type of fractal-space that extends beyond the canvas.

“I had been working with spirals of the golden ratio for some time, aiming to create a sense of stillness, sensations removed from time and place, but then realised that this quietness can be better captured through the compression of time and space. It’s a stillness found in the accretion of motion and impermanence, a gentle tidal rhythm behind the chaos.” - Nick Gordon