University Campus Suffolk

Positive and Negative space

I First came across the idea of positive and negative space whilst researching artists to analyse for my dissertation. Takahiro Iwasaki is a Japanese artist who meticulously creates minute sculptures from everyday objects.

For example he has created a mountain and shoreline on a roll of duct tape and a row of electricity pylons that sit on the bristles of toothbrushes.

This in itself creates a dichotomy of space. The dichotomy between the very large being reproduced, to scale, on the very small. However, this isn’t the concept of space that I was interested in- although they are brilliant sculptures. What interested me was the space surrounding the sculpture and what affect it had on the viewer.

I defined the sculpture, painting, photograph etc. as the ‘positive’ space or ‘active’ space and the space surrounding the object as the ‘negative’ space or ‘inactive’ (although by definition it isn’t inactive at all). I was curious about what effect the surrounding space has on particular works, particularly works that are very small- as there must be a lot of negative space.

Does the negative space dominate or highlight the work?

How does the viewer react to something that is very small being placed in a vast open space?

Conversely how does to the viewer react to a work that is placed amongst others?

All these questions above deal with the very small and they are displayed in a gallery. But the same concept applies for the very large.

How does negative space affect a particularly large work- a painting for example?

If the painting is sufficiently large does it effect it at all?

Is the painting less effective if it is small as opposed to very large in conveying an element of space?

I have said nothing here about the composition of the painting and how that affects the viewer or indeed even made the comparison over which is more ‘important’ (if important is the right word). At the moment I feel as if the two play off each other and that no painting can fully disregard one either facet.

Side note: A argument could be made for a painting of sufficient size that when viewing it the spectator’s vision is completely engulfed in the painting- Barnet Newman’s Vir Heroic Sublimis for example. It is true at this point that there is no negative space at all- However when approaching the painting or passing the painting in the gallery the negative space becomes clear.

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Where I will go from here

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about how I can move my practice forward and in what direction it is going. After reading over my blog in its entirety for the first time in about a month it is clear that my practice is evolving from looking at how colours fit together to analysing other the effects of other variables , such as size/scale relative to the viewer , composition, surface of work, and paint relative to its absolute surroundings ie the gallery space the art is in.

This is all very well but what impact does this have on my practice and the art that I am producing/ going to make?

After reflecting on my work it all looks quite similar, although I have tried to achieve different things (and have to a certain extent) it is all, aesthetically at least, very similar. From here I tend to explore the effects of scale to a larger extent I have ordered a piece of fibre board that is 3 by 1.5 metres and will produce a painting that size.

I am also going to look at the effects of scale in the opposite sense. I will make a series of paintings 5 by 7.5cm and display on a wall in a mock gallery setting. I think it is important to do this as seeing a work this size in a studio environment has little significance, it is only when you position it on a wall (hopefully a large clear wall) will the significance of it’s size take affect- the surrounds will play as big a part in the experience of the painting as the painting it self.

I also intend to diversify the way I use and apply paint, I’ve been looking at a few artists (Chris Finley, ??? who I haven’t posted about yet) all have very different and interesting ways of applying paint. For example I plan to continue working with Adobe Illustrator to look at the various shape and colour perspectives I can generate.

In addition I plan to continue my work looking at the affects of different gradients. I also plan to start working with the masking tape from my paintings. I’m not sure what I could produce with them but as Jane said they are to interesting to keep throwing them away like I have been. I’ve kept the ones from my latest painting and have arranged them up against the wall of my studio.

Hopefully when all of these works come into fruition I should have enough of a varied body of work that I should have a lot to choose from for the degree show.