The Excel series began in lockdown, and was in part a response to being isolated and quarantined. Photographs were shared by friends, family and strangers of scenes/aspects of the outside world, which I then translated into blocks of colour using the familiar Excel programme. The work responds to my interest in abstraction, repetition and particularly reduction, which I see as a process of seeking the essence of something, as well as fascination with geometry and geometric art – rules, repetitions and formulas, as well as the visual language of geometry in popular culture – from early computer graphics in games like Tetris, to contemporary Minecraft. The final images – giclee prints – retain the essence of their process, and as images reflect a complex geometric minimalism alongside visual distortion and slight perceptual ‘shock’ as in optical art where the images ‘vibrate’. As in other works, my curiosity is toward the glitches and ‘noise’ in aesthetics, especially elements that arise from human rather than machine or technological error. In developing these images I was interested in bringing curiosity and playfulness to software not designed specifically for art or image making, and governed by ‘rules’ and ‘formulas’. The pieces nod to the role of programmes like Excel in isolating, reducing, processing and presenting ‘data’, and subverting this through generating imagery that alludes to nature and natural forms. The works aim to be visually intriguing, whilst being a little deceptive – viewing them can be both pleasurable and due to the optical distortions generated in the process, not pleasurable at the same time.
