Katy Corner (Mind's Eye)
“The works in Mind’s Eye represent six years’ work, each taking around two months to complete.
To begin with, I chose comfortable colours and divided the canvas into sections. Mathematical templates and found designs – architectural, medical, Japanese – gave a distinct structure to work with. Balance was the aim.
Increasingly, the work seemed to rebel. I began including colours I’d once found appalling, and inserted conflicting design elements to see what would unfold. Wrong turns became welcome forays into unknown territory; mistakes could be turned to advantage.
Many of the early pieces can be upended for a subtly different effect. The basilica form used in Breathing Space and Pulsate demonstrates how perfect design can be infinitely altered through the weight of colour.
There is a clear progression from early, stability-seeking work to later canvases which clearly have minds of their own. They changed from a striving for order and balance to allowing in the chaos of the outside world.
By 2004 I was no longer imposing structure before setting off on the journey. In Hover, for example, the vaguely Masonic compass shape started the ball rolling. A zig-zagging line – like a heart-rate monitor, a mountainous landscape or rhythms of the stock exchange - became useful for keeping some kind of order.
I found that a quivering effect could be achieved when several neutral shades were combined. Using stronger tones turned other areas into camouflage, or cloudy skies, which could link disparate sections.
By now, the canvas was becoming too small and shapes literally pushed through its boundaries. The four parts of Mind’s Eye took eight months to complete. In No Limits the connecting line is more prominent and leads out of the right-hand frames – it could go on forever.
Looking back, I see a strong focus on finding ways through. I can recognize the subliminal influence of a city under construction – the bypass, the hospital... The printmaking I was doing, too, played its part in the way images reverse during this process.
Each tapestry has an individual presence with quirks and challenges of its own. The passage from blank canvas to mounted, framed finality has been rich, complex and full of surprises.” (Katy Corner, August 2007)
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