Andy Harper 'The Mandalas'

ANDY HARPER
THE MANDALAS

ANDY HARPER
THE MANDALAS

“Philosophy [nature] is written in that great book which ever is
before our eyes - I mean the universe - but we cannot understand
it if we do not first learn the language and grasp the symbols in
which it is written. The book is written in mathematical language,
and the symbols are triangles, circles and other geometrical
figures, without whose help it is impossible to comprehend a
single word of it; without which one wanders in vain through a
dark labyrinth.”
Galileo
Despite ancient and numerous theological associations a
mandala is traditionally seen as representative of reality, as
lived. It is often a representation of wholeness and a model to
aid reflection on the organizational structure of life itself. A form
of diagram that shows our relation to the infinite that extends
beyond and within various minds & bodies from the micro to
the macro. The microcosm / macrocosm analogy refers to a
perennial view which posited a structural similarity between ‘us’
and the ‘cosmos’ as a whole where truths about the nature of the
cosmos may be inferred from truths about our human nature, and
vice versa. German polymath Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz stated
that “this interconnection or accommodation of all created things
to each other, and each to all the others, brings it about that
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each simple substance has relations that express all the others,
and consequently, that each simple substance is a perpetual,
living mirror of the universe.” It is a grasping of this sense of
oneness, that can be both expressed and experienced through
this form. The re-introduction of mandalas into modern Western
thought is largely credited to psychologist Carl Gustav Jung. In
his exploration of the unconscious through art, Jung observed
the common appearance of a circle motif across religions and
cultures. He hypothesized that’s own circle drawings reflected
the mind’s inner state at the moment of creation and were a kind
of symbolic archetype in the collective unconscious.
Although there may be a relationship between these theoretical
standpoints and the works exhibited, Harper hasn’t been
deliberately led by them. Instead, it is through the act of
praxis, where thought and intuition meet through the hand, that
discovery can occur. He states that “there is a system to the
paintings production but this network of marks and calculations
have to be capable of catching a poetry that creates its own self
contained world, a world within a world…a cycle within a cycle”.
I am reminded of Isaac Asimov who wrote in his book ’Second
Foundation’ that “a circle has no end.”
Joseph Clarke, 2023
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The Longest Day
oil on linen, 180 cm diameter
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Solidaire
oil on canvas, 90 cm diameter
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Side Chain
oil on board, 60 cm diameter
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Seriquel
oil on board, 60 cm diameter
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Slant Rhyme
oil on aluminium panel, 79 cm diameter
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Rhythmic Sway
oil on aluminium panel, 79 cm diameter
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Diode Clipping
oil on aluminium panel, 79 cm diameter
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Spring Reverb
oil on linen, 180 cm diameter
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The Carriers
oil on aluminium panel, 120 cm diameter
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Andy Harper’s intricate oil paintings deal with the fruits of labour
in the shadow of uncertainty. On one side they are concerned
with the immediate process of painting, the mechanical,
almost automated act of laying down mark after mark on a
wet surface. On the other hand, they are subject to long-term
strategy, each mark developed over time and embedded into
a composition that provides an architectural structure for the
work. While this framework may be logically ordered, the marks
themselves are organic entities, forming a broad visual library
that has taken on a life its own, growing through repetition and
recombination in each new work. The paintings act like a Petridish
for the culturing of this visual language, and a greenhouse
for its cultivation. The forms may seem organic, but upon
closer inspection they are not specific to anything the natural
world has to offer. Rather they appear as a synthetic form of
nature, generated from compulsive repetition and subjective
reinterpretation, a world that has somehow evolved beyond the
point of progeny to become its own independent alien entity.
Andy Harper lives in St Just, the most westerly town in Cornwall
and works from a studio at the renowned Porthmeor Studios in
St Ives. He studied his BA in Fine Art: Painting & Printmaking
at Brighton Polytechnic and then MA Fine Art: Painting at the
Royal College of Art, London. In 1996, with some peers from
the RCA, Harper co-founded NotCut which ran a studio and
photographic darkroom in London and curated ‘Lightness &
Weight’ in Birmingham. During this time he also studied part
time at Middlesex University for an MA in Visual Culture and had
his first solo exhibition in London in 1998. After attending the
Braziers International Artist Workshop in 2000, Harper became
a member of the organising committee until 2008. Harper has
taught in many institutions nationally and internationally, and
had teaching posts at Central St. Martins, The City Lit and is
currently a Senior Lecturer on the MFA Fine Art programme at
Goldsmiths, University of London. Harper has exhibited widely
in Europe, North America and South Korea.

Published by Anima Mundi to coincide with Andy Harper ‘The Mandalas’
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