Analogue shift

Engaging random occurrences has had an important role in the history of artistic challenge. Chance has powered experimentation, but also served to negate artistic agency and aesthetic intent, suggesting the immanence rather than transcendence of art. A mix of these interests endures in Justin Andrews's use of the arbitrary and random. In his current work, he uses chance processes to generate a sequence of compositional alternatives for non-objective paintings, the emphasis on process reflecting the diverse systems and structures that pervade everyday life. This process begins with an open rectangular box in which Andrews shakes various small pieces of metal, plastic and wood, remnants of his sculptures. The resulting arrangements are photographed using a digital camera, providing the basis for a sequence of abstract paintings. The photographs become works in their own right, recognising that the digital has its own reality. On other occasions, the offcuts are poured from the shaker box onto a canvas and glued into place, the canvas having already been painted with image of previous arrangements introducing an exchange between the actual and representational.