“All Thoughts are Equal,” an exhibition of new paintings by Sam Lock, is now open in London. This is the artist’s ninth solo show with Cadogan.
In this new series of works, Lock explores the mapping or tracking of information. The marks he creates are uncertain, operating within a designated space. They are metaphorical and rhythmic. These paintings need every one of their marks but not more/less – they are all essential; equalised in some way.
The mapping or tracking of information suggests a certainty or system – a powerful sense of purpose. These paintings are maps but they do not seek to know – in fact the opposite. They are uncertain marks within a designated space – metaphorical and rhythmic. Rhythms of thought and pattern of action compete with each other, struggling to be noticed within the melee or group – some stick together, others seek the periphery of the canvas and the breathing space it offers.
Laruelle suggests that the human “brings with him the primacy of the real over the possible” – these marks are both real (physical manifestations of a moment and gesture) but when combined with the human imagination they have other possibilities, they spark thought or suggest meaning. In reality these paintings are improvisations, created one step before knowing. Improvisation is essentially an act of acute vulnerability – it is also a path to unexpected – to arrive at a place one step before knowing it. These paintings need every one of their marks but not more/less – they are all essential; equalised in some way.
The act of painting can be linear with one mark following another, replacing what has gone before, marking a moment before it becomes the past. The new mark has an urgency about it – but only for a moment – before its time has gone. It leaves itself behind on the canvas, a memory trace. The Greek word for truth (Aletheia) also incorporates the word for “forgetting” – translating as ‘unforgetfulness’ – these paintings are not about memory but perhaps they are about unforgetting.
“All Thoughts are Equal” will be open to the public from the 2nd April to the 11th May at Cadogan Gallery, London.
