The series statement reads “I see grids as symbols of order and stability.  An early pioneer of computer generative art in the 60s, Vera Molnar added a small element of code that introduced randomness into her computer plotter’s algorithms, resulting in disrupted grid lines and distorted squares.  Inspired by Molnar’s geometric linear work, in 2020 I developed a stitched square unit which I’ve used many times since.  “Out Of Order 3”  is from a series of works prompted by breakdowns in the internationally agreed systems of rules-based order that shape political, social and trading networks currently under pressure from social, political, financial and technological change.”   

To me, a grid respresents a framework of normality, diagrammatic patterns of normal human behaviour, within our families, and at community, national and international levels. Many in today’s world are lamenting the loss of the international rules based order that grew after WWII, but disintegration of patterns is happening at all levels, and such disruptions have an unsettling effect on each of us.

#1 didn’t make the cut where I entered it, #2 has not been seen anywhere yet, but both will be included in my fortcoming solo exhibition next January.

In the past few years there have been many attacks around the world on ‘normal’ people just going about their business, including the pirate attacks on ships sailing through the Straits of Hormuz, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the dreadful assault of Hamas on Israel, and racial and ethnic minorities in many parts of the world. Some are loudly voiced politico-economic outbreaks without any military elements, but highly disruptive nevertheless. Plus, in many countries there are so many personal scandals in the most powerful political leaders in our daily news, that I myself know several people who refuse to watch TV or listen to radio for news, and only read as much online or in newspapers that they feel gives them the bare bones of what’s going on, because they feel it’s all unhealthily distressing. I know what they mean, and quite often I pick up my mobile phone to play solitaire or similar while listening to the latest reports, without watching the latest gruesome video. I grew up in the days of radio before TV came to Australia in 1956, and so this feels quite normal and often preferable to me.

So far this “Out of Order” series shows some increasing irregularity, but now, as I look back at the beginning of August, I realise it’s pretty slight, really, compared with the huge disruptions we’ve all been experiencing this year in our various grid structures of living. Many commentators expect greater impacts ahead, perhaps even culminating in a world recession. The sabres are rattling again on the 80th anniversary of the nuclear bomb being dropped on Hiroshima… As I write the US president is voicing how he’d like to meet with the Russian and the Ukrainian presidents, so international pattern disruptions are developing very fast, and I think my grids need to be much more distorted!

My collection of pinned images on Pinterest includes a board titled ‘Grids!’ because this concept of structures in which we live and operate has become important to me. There are several artists whose work I admire, such as Vera Molnar of course, Takahiko Hayashi, Lari Washburn, Giles Bettison, Agnes Martin, Shane Drinkwater and more; but just this morning I found a painter, Dustin D Smith, whose work really resonated with me. This short video https://www.instagram.com/p/C8kGr4WJ4ah/ is a generous insight into his process, and I immediately began to think of in terms of fabric+paint+stitch…

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