Ziegler, Toby
The title of Toby Ziegler's painting 'Je t'adore, baby' bears no relation to its subject matter, but rather acts as a signpost to the artist's thought processes at the time. There is a conflict running through the artist's work, between the technical or mechanical and a more gestural or emotional impulse. Each of Ziegler's paintings begin their life in a computer software programme; the extreme, central perspective, mathematically precise as a Canaletto, is also the familiar terrain of computer games. The Scotchbrite material used as a support is the highly reflective fabric normally employed for safety wear by the emergency services. As a canvas it glows in direct light like a computer screen and images painted on this support are unstable: as the viewer moves from one side of the work across to the other a structure emerges and perspective reveals itself. What could be read as a mosque is in fact Sizewell B nuclear power station. 'Je t'adore baby' is elusive: painted in white on white Scotchbrite, its overall pattern is fine and dense. The subject matter reveals itself reluctantly as a series of tall, slender columns that are reminiscent of some of the more elaborate Moorish architecture of Seville or Cordoba in Southern Spain.
Caroline Douglas, Supernova catalogue, 2005
- Artwork Details: 215 x 252cm
- Edition:
- Material description: acrylic on Scotchbrite
- Credit line: © the artist
- Theme:
- Medium: Painting
- Accession number: ACC38/2006