“All true productivity realises itself simultaneously upon an artistic and scientific basis. With the acceptance of Einstein's Theory of Relativity, the fourth dimension has come into the realm of natural science. The first and second dimension include the world of appearance, the third holds reality within it, the fourth dimension is the realm of the spirit and imagination, of feeling and sensibility”.
     Hans Hofmann.

     This new exhibition by Sax Impey acts as a window into what lies in (and even beyond) Hofmann’s "realm of the spirit and imagination". I have known Sax’s work for around ten years and always long to see what each new series of paintings have to offer. I have constantly found the inspiration behind the works as fascinating as the paintings themselves are accomplished, absorbing and vital. This latest exhibition is no exception. I for one, it can pretty safely be said, rarely allow the theoretical concerns of the quantum physicist or mathematician to encroach on my everyday thoughts. A Brief History of Time has been slipped into my bookshelf, and the Fibonacci sequence has only fleetingly been visited through the Enigma code-breaking talents of Alan Turing. Consequently, a blinkered part of me feels such abstracted thought seems relatively irrelevant. But ever since the destructive capabilities of nuclear fission mushroomed into the public consciousness, no-one could deny the power at the heart of such informed theorising. So when a painter uses the seemingly impenetrable mysteries of sub-nuclear physics and mathematics as points of departure for his work, it is hard to view such pieces as anything less than intriguing and thought-provoking.
    

     Sax has described his paintings as "maps of uncharted places the artist comes back with" and likened the process to venturing into a labyrinth trailing string behind him. When the mazes are as complex and intimidating as those data-laden, universe-embracing puzzles confronted by recent scientists or mathematicians, the tortuous journey to the centre and back is bound to be arduous and time-consuming. But it is this search for the path through the labyrinth, this quest for sense and form when faced with an obfuscating, almost imponderable mass of information, which has preoccupied the inquiring mind since the very beginning. It is the same for the scientist/mathematician, for this particular painter and for the viewer of his works. The paintings themselves offer glimpses of the true elegance of numbers and formulae, the reductive simplicity of the physicist's laws. Mathematics, as Bertrand Russell once noted, has "a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture". Precisely drawn grids and columns - those timeless repositories of numbers, raw data and geometric diagrams - have also consistently recurred throughout Sax's works for several years now. The carefully callibrated grids sometimes faithfully adhered to, sometimes undermined by an indiscriminate application of paint. Yet the viewer of these paintings can never be precise - purposefully left hovering; unsure. Caught between structure and chaos. Between significance and irrelevance. Between truth and falsehood. Between matter and anti-matter. Collisions of sub-atomic particles pictured within a bubble chamber or arcane markings taken from ancient astrological charts? Images of death or of resurrection? Medieval religious iconography or satellite images of Iraqi weapons bunkers?
    

     Above all, it is the traditional craft of the painter that radiates from these works. There is a meticulousness behind the production, which has been apparent in all his previous shows. Representing Pi to 10,000 decimal points is just one example of the importance placed on precision. Textures are painstakingly built up or taken down, surfaces buffed or tarnished, colours applied or removed over hours, days, weeks, or even longer. His current studio has provided several painters with one of the most expansive, inspiring and elemental views of St Ives : famous Porthmeor bay in all its raw, forceful beauty. As the seasons pass and the tides ebb and flow outside his studio window, Sax keenly observes and depicts the forces at work around him. All too aware of his position as a mere viewer himself.

      "I’m just a wide eyed observer, by turns baffled, awed and mad as hell. I paint to slow the world down.”
     Sax Impey

    “ ..chosen are those artists who penetrate to the region of that secret place where primeval power nurtures all evolution. There, where the powerhouse of all time and space - call it brain or heart of creation - activates each function; who is the artist who would not dwell there?”
     Paul Klee

© James Burleigh 2004