Jon Cattapan Signal group

Signal group depicts an ambiguous image of protest or conflict. The visual reference to pixelated or degraded images is important to the aesthetic of all my paintings, as is the layering process. So, seen up close, these markings are like energy points – pulses perhaps. These light points have been described as constellations that coalesce into figures. I am interested not just by the potential narrative, but by the actual interplay of the painterly abstract ground and these open figurative ‘clusters’. And this interplay might just be a metaphor for the uncertain and fluid tenor of our times.

Jon Cattapan, 2017