Disarming Geometries

With recurring natural disasters, pandemics, riots, social disparity, and political strife, the world can seem a frightening place. Trying to cope with the constant stream of imagery and data about calamitous or perplexing events can induce enormous anxiety. Artists have used geometric abstraction since ancient times to make sense of the world around them and record their stories. For instance, a landscape mural from c. 6150 B.C. at Çatal Hüyük in the Near East shows a city threatened by an erupting volcano. The artist’s depiction employs an economy of shapes, such as squares, cones, and arches; this stripped down technique seems hardly sufficient to convey the horror of the scene, yet there is something calming about the detached sensibility, making the inevitable destruction seem less alarming. Historically, artists have created works that act as “mirrors” to reflect and comment on the issues of the day, and “windows” to frame a vision of the world. Interpreting this view, which today is arguably defined by apprehension, change, violence, and unpredictability, has become a daunting task for contemporary artists. Disarming Geometries features artists who apply abstraction and geometry as organizing or fragmenting tools for processing those unsettling characteristics of everyday life. Artists are also employing geometry, without representational imagery, to allude to spiritual concepts in an effort to understand our existence. Others are attempting to forge connections to the natural world by finding common patterns and symmetry in our surroundings