Temple

Temple is an installation that comprises Graphic Compositions, a print series, which  transposes Wassily Kandinsky’s color theory (that primary shapes correspond with specific primary colors) to digital printing techniques. The shapes, which are distinctly formed by colour, are composed of a sentence once spoken by linguist and political scientist Noam Chomsky, while addressing a visually indiscernible audience: “I gather there are some people out behind that blackness there… but if I don’t look you in the eye, it’s because I don’t see you. All I see is the blackness.”

Using cyan, magenta, and yellow as the primary colors, a circle, a square, and a triangle become case studies in harmony, balance, and movement on paper. The shapes are presented against a black background, upon which the vibrancy of the shape, colour and text is intensified, subverting Kandinsky’s proposition that the ‘colour’ black approximates nothingness and foregrounding Chomsky’s slippage with language. The title of these prints plays on the word graphic, which can refer to the graphic arts, and be a euphemism for something explicitly offensive or obscene. leo’s formal consideration subtly plays with perceptions of race and aesthetics, raising questions towards the possibility of representation under visual regimes of scrutiny and prejudice.

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The Graphic Compositions were initially developed in collaboration with Shobun Baile and commissioned by the 2020 Fotofest Biennial, Houston (US).