Esther O'Kelly exhibits eight paintings, acrylic on canvas that share the same title Photosphene and a number 1-8. Four large ones share the diameter of 60 cm, one a little smaller of 50cm diameter, and three smaller ones, 30cm, 33cm and 36cm. A rondel has an interupted history, in rich appearances in Hellenistic art, Renaissance and 20th C, with large gaps where it is absent, and shifts to the privacy of small scale embroidery, tapestry. O'Kelly is thus reviving it for modern vitalism of wild colour contrasts and undescribed motives. According to the curator of HOST, Moran Been-noon, they are "expressions of a journey into childhood" via "memories, a version of reality that we harbour within, shards of light that pierce through otherwise a misty perception of why and how we understood the world around us and of our place within it now." I admit being overwhelmed by those words, applicable to so much, that escapes definition. My take is to answer a question concerning what is visible. The rondel itself has a history, as I mention above and in poetry and music(there it spells "rondo" and follows patterns of repetition). In these paintings the circular form has another meaning: that of repeat of similarity and difference of direction. Turning a rondel leads to another variant of the rhythm and space thus influencing the meaning. I sense every one of them houses a number of variants, like a musical equivalent of rondel referred to as rondo. O'Kelly offers multiples in one circular form based on her mastering untidy plurality of hues and tones to feed the viewer's imagination. They are like the universe, not fully understandable but powerfully present.
Image Credit: Tim Millen
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