Emergence (Black on White) 2013
Surrealist automatism is the practice of expressing the subconscious by allowing your hand to move randomly during the mark making process. This process uses chance and accidental mark making in order to free your hand from rational control so that the image produced is largely attributed to the impulses of the unconscious mind and acts as a revelation of an otherwise repressed psyche.
My work is an attempt to revisit the ideas and update the methods of surrealist automatism by applying the technical process of subtractive painting. I lay down thick layers of paint onto a variety of surfaces, then using q-tips, cotton balls, and palette knives, I wipe away paint to create hundreds (sometimes thousands) of lines that weave, curl, twist, braid, and connect to create an image while also leaving behind a tactile texture.
I am currently attempting to push the sensory experience even further through the use of color and the manipulation of texture. In some pieces I am able to add a variety of colors by laying down layers of different colors of paint so that each line created will be a different color depending on the amount of pressure I apply during the subtraction process. I have also created pieces that lack color altogether (ex. layering black paint onto a black surface or white paint onto a white surface) thus the image survives solely due to its texture.
My current work is not only a continued exploration of the nature of my medium but also an exploration into free association through intuitive rendering. In utilizing the methods of automatism and free association combined with various meditation practices executed before, during, and after each painting session, I am able to focus my physical energy solely on the automatic mark-making process while committing my mind to a state of deep introversion so that each piece acts as an emergence of creative energy from my unconscious mind. The result is a labyrinth of intricate lines that flow in and out of each other randomly but ultimately come together to form geometric shapes, which I feel represents the chaotic yet beautiful nature of the human psyche and our need to understand and make sense of our world and ourselves.
- Adam T. Hall (2014)