Without Meaning is a collection of digital abstractions from Terry Flaxton, created as a counterpoint to the freight of 'meaning' - both intended and perceived - that permeates an artists practice. In this collection Flaxton has invented a language of abstraction that speaks to the connection between all things whilst emphasising their separation, in the same way that people are inherently part of a common community yet each unique as individuals. Despite shared colours and a loose continuity of form and shape the works of Without Meaning exist in flux, a stream of ideas resistant to a fixed interpretation or calcified meaning, refuting any specific value of exchange. The collection references the art historical tradition of interrogation of colour and form, but as an oppositional gesture to the static media of paint and sculpture Flaxton foregrounds the mutability of the digital canvass; works that elongate, contract and expand within a set duration of time.
Interestingly, in juxtaposition to the aim of the works and the collection title, each piece has a Latin title - a phrase in common usage albeit from a dead language. Are these titles intended to misdirect the viewer? Or rather to direct the audience to a place where the title is not the point? Such signifying terms could be in Sanskrit or Babylonian, or older still Cuneiform script. Yet the use of language from the near-past keeps a tantalising sense of meaning within sight, dancing just out of reach.
Sound by Jenny Bliss
Collectors who purchase all three Without Meaning artworks receive a free copy of related artwork Radiant Sound, Radiant Light (Sonus et Lux Radiosa).