MARK C. STEVENSON
Ecotone
Ecotone (n.) — a region of transition between two biological communities.
These works occupy that edge. Neither photographic statement about abstraction nor abstract statement made through photography, they refuse both categories while remaining legible as each. The viewer is placed in the tension itself — where assumptions about medium, subject, and meaning are simultaneously activated and suspended.
HOW THE SERIES WORKS
The works begin as torn canvas—ripped to varying lengths and widths, painted in differing degrees of translucency, saturation, hue, and luminosity. These fragments are thrown into the air and captured with high-speed cameras before being edited and printed. The final images are color formations of ink on paper, yet their marks originate from paint on canvas suspended in motion. They both reveal and obscure their own making.
So, are these photographs that deconstruct the components and processes of abstract painting? Or autonomous two-dimensional objects—self-contained worlds unto themselves? Perhaps it depends on the mental model through which one chooses to see them. Or perhaps the works are both, simultaneously. They refuse to resolve the question, occupying the unsettled space between photography and pure abstraction, where the act of choosing becomes part of the artwork itself.