Here’s a set of chance compositions made consulting the I Ching.

Using the I Ching as an oracle I devised a series of questions that allowed me to make a series of chance compositions.

I assigned values to 64 hexagrams (shown in four graphs) and asked four questions:

1. How many shapes to use in the composition No. X?

2. What is the shape No. X?

3. What is the colour of the shape No. X?

4. What is the scale of the shape No. X?

I have drawn a square and have fitted the shapes into it proportionally to the small square in the graph 2, then assigned colour according to the graph 3, and have scaled up shapes according to the value from graph 4.

If the hexagram turned out to have some changing lines – I would then use a value of the transformed hexagram, with exception to the colour graph – where I would use an initial hexagram for the fill of shapes, an a transformed hexagram value for a colour of outlines.

The shapes were layered on top of each other.

In order to complete a final composition – a number of compositions were recorded during the process.

I am not going to put my name on Rothko, but I will put a Rothko on my work… and so I did on my project drawings for Dalston Art & Dance Youth Centre in 2011…

And so i am doing this year suggesting that my spiky pyramid tiles would be a perfect surface for a Rothko exhibition… Dont think they would keep paintings safe from guys like Vladimir Umanets, but at least if Vlad stepped on my teracotta tile, he would have to pay for its damage too!

Both, the terracota tile and the black iron powder/plaster tile, have derived from a 2d geometry composition exercise.