- Semper Augustus
- Charles Cowles Gallery, New York
- Catalogue
- Press Release
- About this work
Semper Augustus consists of eleven paintings that function as a self-referential system. I am interested in the way that identity and uniqueness is asserted through subtle difference, much as individual identity is expressed in nature through minute difference in genetic coding. I create groups of paintings that are closely related as part of a network or system. Differentiation within the limited system allows for comparison and for the assertion of identity. A certain amount of variation within a system is acceptable and indeed necessary. But too much is perverse, strange, memorable–even terrible, or beautiful. Semper Augustus refers to the celebrated and ill-fated flower that is symbolic of 17th century Dutch tulipomania. Its extreme beauty was a ‘break’, or mutation, caused by a virus. Ironically, the Dutch inadvertently eradicated the virus that they might have chosen to cultivate and, once gone, Semper Augustus never reappeared.
Within this body of work, the ‘break’ in the system is represented by Straight/curved Variation/Mutation (black, blue, yellow, white).
Semper Augustus was exhibited at Charles Cowles Gallery, New York, December 9, 2004-January 15, 2005.