The Tantric series was painted over the year which followed the move into abstraction and picked up the same themes and developed them further, thus providing the link to the latest collection: Breaking the Cycle - Varanasi. The tantric series has yet to be exhibited as a body of work but in the current climate, the reflective nature of these pieces seems highly relevant.
The tantric paintings are a response to ancient Rajasthani works on paper which were used as aids to prayer and meditation. They drew upon very simple shapes and motifs. The squares represent earth and the circles heaven. The work is executed using large spatulas and lengths of wood inviting opportunity and accident into paintings and the infinite variety in repetition as no two works will ever look the same. The final 'bindu' drop of paint is allowed to fall onto the horizontal painting and is formed by gravity and surface tension. Sometimes this goes awry and the work must be scraped down and begun again, introducing the idea of impermanence into the daily working practice.
Tantric: The original meaning was derived from the word tantra meaning a loom, warp or weave.
This leads towards a broad understanding of the word tantric as: woven together, man to woman, humanity to divinity.
