INTERSECTING CIRCLES

Some collaborative conversations between Tom Hall and Bob Parks                                                

Curated by Tom Hall

A Short Story About Us

Bob and I have been thrown together by the proximity of our two studios. We are a couple of generations apart and what feels lifetimes within art language. Bob Parks is an unashamed Modernist, deeply knowledgeable and widely read, steeped in the histories of the twentieth century where the artist is the keyholder who unlocks the doors of knowledge. We disagree about much. This might sound a strange basis to build a friendship and collaboration on, but a shared love of ideas has built ongoing looping discussions. A radical performance artist during the seventies in LA, Bob has always held Sway as home. A painter, maker, and actionist Bob’s work roots from a spiritual internal understanding of self, place, and music. The main circle you walk into is a painting and chroma-graphic response called Just Runnin' Scared based on the Roy Orbison pop song.

This exhibition has been born out of a chance studio visit. Conversations started in response to Bob’s circle of ordered pigments and their unintended relationship to the paintings around them. As we stood amongst a series of chanced interlocking circles in Bob’s studio we discussed psychedelics, colours, walking unknown paths, Quantum time, Hamish Fulton, infinitesimal space and mandalas and saw the potential in the circular forms.

I grew up artistically either side of the millennium. Much of my work is personal but looks to connect with outside ideas, often working with other groups and individuals. The circle connection I have made is with scientists from CERN and the Large Hadron Collider. The Circle is a new film, made with the filmmaker Kieran Short, and tries to describe quantum time in our Newtonian world. The blanket/cape is a star chart of the northern hemisphere on my birth and is an attempt to connect our ancient human development to contemporary science as it reaches back to study the birth of the universe. This is seen through the invention of the Space Shaman character who wears the cape in the film.