Martin Pirongs
Artist
Artist Statement 2022
My work is generated through positioning myself in relation to planarity. It is created with my experiencing of flatness that surrounds us. From the geometry of the enclosed studio’s four white walls and corners; the perfect blankness of the sheet of paper within; to renderings of cement and giant flat surfaces of industry and architecture outside, I am drawn by the qualities of a continuous single plane that invite contact. There, illuminated with uniform light, a mutual longing.
In the urban environment we doubtless absorb the all-pervasive flatness about us, while smooth ground scrolls beneath our feet. And yet, when we seek other worlds to peer through into, parallel screens still light up our faces. They present to the axis of our seeing bodies, images shifting laterally as we swipe left to right.
I seek to re-present qualities of planarity and flatness, to gently prise them from their background hosts, where control is relinquished and relationship experienced anew. I am trying to locate an articulation of contact with plane, body and vision, to place myself front on and stand in the sweet spot of its calm trajectory.
That I am unable to ignore the supporting cast of everyday objects that co-populate that world, is a sequel. They too become the focus of a naïve playful engagement, the daily functionality with which they are tasked rendered obsolete, reversed or thwarted and so become absurd.