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10OX

Kimmy Quillin's 10OX (read: "ten ox") offers a modern visual interpretation of the Zen classic story Ten Bulls or Ten Ox Herding Pictures, which describes the path of enlightenment or the path of the bodhisattva. The installation becomes a walking meditation that reaches beyond its component paintings to guide the viewer along a path of transformation and transcendence. This theme is presented most palpably through color, wherein black-brown represents the bull-mind (ego/hero) of this ancient archetypal story, beginning with a call to adventure, apexing in revelation, and ending in the return to home.

 

Rather than use this narrative as a crutch, Quillin uses the story as an opportunity to present ten unique perspectives on the interplay of line and color, warmth and coolness, space and engagement. Within the context of this narrative, each canvas maintains its own precise balance and harmony through the use of dynamic geometric figures which at times sharply juxtapose one another, and at others, lean and accept. These figures compete for the viewer’s attention without becoming cluttered. The result is one of harmony that plays out in each canvas in subtly different ways.

CANVAS + PAPER

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