New series presented: Intrinsic Dimension
19 Sept. – 16 Dec. 2016, London - England

Solo exhibition At Circus:
58 Marylebone High Street
London W1U 5HT
Monday to Friday 10 am - 5 pm.

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“The notion of the picture as the product of painting…is being replaced by the experience of spatial construction”. The Line by A. Rodchenko, 1921.

Intrinsic Dimension is a new body of work by Francisca Prieto. It is a series of twelve compositions that explores and visualises the 1921 thesis by the Russian artist Alexander Rodchenko, in which he advocates to abandon figurative art on a quest for a new kind of painting; one where the artist’s invention relies on the construction of material.

“The retreat of painting from representation had an effect on the entire structure of the work of art, making it closer to a construction… Work on the creation of forms and a structural system for them gradually brought the line into the surface as a structural element. The line enables us to picture the construction either in exploded or in connected form, particular structural moments, and movement of all kinds.” A. Rodchenko.

Francisca gives a new dimension to the canvas by materialising the line and using it to build. Suspending old card railway tickets, she creates waves of colour with fragments of distance travelled. Lines, Rodchenko’s skeleton of construction, become suggestive indications of narrative and emotion, as intensities of visual texture and colour are ordered as paint applied.

Contrast comes in angles and movement, as the works change depending on our perspective or viewpoint. Rippling with the singularity of every ticket, every line carries us on our own journey, creating the character for each of the twelve multilayered artworks.

From the front Stillness is a peaceful order of white with a hint of blue line – a calm watery surface that deepens as one moves past. Reflection is two lines, a powerful magenta mirroring itself, while Reaction is three – an inversion, as each line is now white with the strength of flowing colour holding them.

The endless colours of saved and collected tickets, each one now a stroke of precious pigment, evoke moments, feelings, memory – a half-thought – in compositions that summon Recollection and Dream or experiences such as an Impression that a journey may leave or a Purpose that may install. Spring, a ray of enlivening light, is tinged with shades of new buds green; light returns reversed on the earthly colours of Autumn, with only edges of green.

A fitting culmination to the series is the impression of light itself – the exquisite sensation of time of day: rising in gold-capped horizons (Sunrise) to a lush canopy of lightly wavering notes (Midday) that set to a filtering of honeyed lilac across lines of deep blue and shades of coral (Sunset).

Francisca set about the challenge to physically construct Rodchenko’s structural moments theory; through the Intrinsic Dimension series she adds a new spatiality to painting, departing from convention in both use of material and approach, instilling us to pause at what is built anew.

“The structural moment contains in itself the organisation or design of an entire new organism, rather than representation” A. Rodchenko, 1921.

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About Circus:
Circus is a boutique management consultancy specialising in brand strategy, brand purpose, brand proposition, vision and values.

Circus cultural programme, In collaboration, is a series of exhibitions and talks to complement their work and help gift new perspectives. Hosted in their gallery and home on Marylebone High Street, it brings together art and business to encourage us all to see and do things differently.