Kāryn Taylor, Future Philosophies, The Suter Art Gallery

The Suter Art Gallery Te Aratoi o Whakatū is proud to present Nelson artist Kāryn Taylor’s exhibition Future Philosophies.

Taylor’s longstanding interest in both metaphysics and the scientific world of
quantum physics has remained constant since achieving her Master of Fine Arts
degree from Elam School of Art, University of Auckland. She couples her enquiry
into the aesthetic pleasures of line, colour, and light with her preoccupations about
the ‘big questions’ surrounding existence. This exhibition brings together a selection
of the artist’s recent investigations of luminous, rich colour and light, geometric
forms, and ambiguous effects, including shifting spatial and dimensional
perspectives.

This abstract artistic vocabulary, of which there is a dense history of use in modern
to contemporary art, was motivated by an intuition and curiosity about, not just
quantum studies in science, but the metaphysical, spiritual world. Geometric
abstraction is a way for Taylor to simplify complex, non-logical ideas. She believes
colour and light, and geometrical structures, especially the circle and square, offer
their own energy frequencies. The mysteries of our existence and the universe still
elude full human comprehension and defeat the objectivity of science and the ability
of words to adequately explain. Future Philosophies aims to provide: ‘an opportunity
for discovering new ways of thinking and non-thinking.’

The artist aims to allow the observer to experience both the apparently solid ‘reality’
of the world that our brains can see and rationalise, along with a sense of
changefulness, instability, and the unknown. This changefulness is most evident in
installation works such as The Structure of Things, 2023 and Answer in the Abstract,
2023. Her cast-acrylic lightbox works have evolved over time from what she
describes as highly minimalist compositions, to compositions with a richer colour
palette and circular-play. These have a glowing quality that can induce a state of
wonder. Free-standing sculptures are another new departure for Taylor.

Geometry, illusion, light, and colour are the most obvious way for Taylor to express
non-rational, non-verbal ideas, which ironically, she has been expected to verbalise –
to an extent. The question that reverberates behind Taylor’s artworks and suggested
in her artwork titles, is: how are we, our worlds, time and space, consciousness –
and perception, connected? This is neither detached philosophising or ‘dry’ science
for Taylor. It is both personal and universal in implication.

Kyla Mackenzie, June 2023

The exhibition is supported by Creative New Zealand

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