Our last Kick-About invited us into the wonderful realm of the sea anemone. Just as Actiniaria exhibit a diverse array of vibrant colours and patterns, Carlos Cruz-Diez’s art employs a spectrum of hues and optical effects to evoke dynamic visual experiences. Enjoy this latest collection of new works made in a short time inspired by Cruz-Diez, and if you want to browse all previous editions of The Kick-About, you’ll find them anthologised here.
Kerfe Roig
“As usual, I had no idea what I was doing, and my stitched circles turned out to be so subtle as to be almost invisible. The painted ground overwhelmed the stitching I think. But through the magic of Photoshop and a revision of some writing I had been working on, I managed to come up with a commentary on Cruz-Diez’s distortions of color and light. Not what I intended, but then that’s how things often work.“
Degeneration
There was a blur in my vision—not fixed, but migrating—the doctor said it was my eyes, they were puckered and cataracted—but I thought it was my mind, the way it translated the signals of the light. I had lost the language I had been taught, the fixed way of interpretation, how to fit all those colors into forms with names and shadows.
Nothing was any longer what it had been. The trees were now full of ghosts, interruptions in materiality, consumed by the atmosphere. Not fog, but very like it in certain ways. Except that it clustered without spreading out and then transitioned into other times and places. It was there and then it was not there. It was somewhere else.
You hold out your arms to embrace, to dance, to gather in your surroundings. You dapple the light and whisper the windglimmer with feathered song, reflecting both the sun and moon. You hold the stars inside your branches, keep the earth in place, open portals to magic worlds much larger than the ones we have constructed for ourselves.
Or was it my own molecules that refused to stay still, that changed the context and point of view? I can no longer find a location, let alone a map. Do I even exist, or am I just another ethereal train of thought mingling with the tree’s sighs, one of its spectral whispers?
What used to be my body seems alien, unnecessary. Why did I ever think I needed it to house whatever it is that I once called my mind?
kblog.blog / methodtwomadness.wordpress.com
Graeme Daly
“One of Carlos Cruz-Diez’s sons did say that art should be participatory and I would love for this film to be seen somewhere on a large screen. I made a similar film called Sheeler for the Charles Sheeler prompt and I wanted to revisit this method again for the magnetic colours of Diez’s work. Created in a 3D space in one single shot – a lot of it smoke and mirrors – which is then edited together. I very much enjoy making these sorts of films.”
@graemedalyart / vimeo.com/graemedaly / linkedin.com/in/graeme-daly / twitter.com/Graeme_Daly / gentlegiant.blog
James Randall
“Carlos Cruz-Diez is new to me. I like his evolving approach to colour/light. All a bit esoteric to me but a lot of colour combinations appealed. But with all due respect I kept to red, green and blue – and initially black and white. Initially I was working on a triptych, one red, one green, one blue, using letterforms to break the edges of rectangles and black shapes inside these for drama. Behind these I had blurred shapes of an alternative colour and a morphing overlay grid of the third colour. But these felt forced. I had stumbled across a zig-zag fill in illustrator. Made some simple repeated shapes with the fill then took the shapes into Photoshop and smudged them. This felt felt less forced and visually fitted in with the theme-extreme weather event which I have been contemplating.”
Tom Beg
“I think the work of Carlos Cruz-Diez demonstrates the transformative potential of layering basic shapes with differing colours and making subtle positional adjustments to create something visually interesting and rather primal. I incorporated a couple of algorithmic elements into this concept, resulting in some unexpected outcomes that produced these graphical textures and patterns. I had reservations about using a basic square shape as the container for these experiments, but I found that its simplicity enhanced the overall visual aesthetic rather than complicating it. The straightforward nature of the humble square seemed to complement the complexity introduced by the interplay of colours and patterns.”
twitter.com/earthlystranger / vimeo.com/tombeg / tombeg.com
Phil Gomm
“Picking up where I left off with this technique, I spent several very pleasurable hours playing with colour, light and layering to produce some table-top installations inspired by Cruz-Diez’s simple/magical transformations of site and situation. By defocusing and/or pushing the focus through one layer to another, I was able to arrive at some satisfying results – coloured pencils come to mind and a sort of mid-20th century vibe too.”
Charly Skilling
“I love the way Cruz-Diez plays with colour, exploring the interaction between colours and the quite dramatic changes wrought by subtle shifts in light and viewpoint. I immediately reached for my yarn stash and a crochet hook. Loved making this!“
Gary Thorne
“Let there be light, flashes of colour and a sense of movement! Somewhat dark material drifted in upon this experiment, and a curved ball this certainly is, as I most certainly don’t attempt this kind of stuff, so you film/animation buffs please look away now.”
And from Cruz-Diez’s transformations of color, our next prompt invites us to consider the expressiveness of line.
Red's Kingdom 
Leave a comment