Gulf War, 2003
Ross Holden's mandalas are decidedly decorative. Like the feather neck adornments of some Amazonian tribe, their rigorous geometric patterns are an abstraction of the surrounding world. Closer scrutiny reveals Holden's work to be composed of hundreds upon hundreds of repeated images derived from sources as diverse as news footage of the grisly goings on in Iraq, the moon landings, even a trip to Berlin. Pictures such as Baghdad Sun and Gulf War 2 are particularly effective, using a process of 'fractalisation' to transform images of conflict into symbols of universal harmony. If the depiction of suffering is often problematic, then Holden's mandalas are contemplative rather than exploitative. More generally the simple technique of repetition allows this 34-year old English artist to confer an orderly aesthetic identity onto the confusion of the world at large.
Living in a media-saturated age we are buffeted by a constant stream of information. Images pile upon images and we struggle to make sense of it all. In a nod to their Buddhist origins Holden's mandalas enjoy a detached relationship with their source material. This distance allows us to acknowledge the vicissitudes of life without falling into despair. Somewhere beyond the apparent chaos of our times an underlying cosmological order persists.
Jason Oddy
Jason Oddy is an artist and writer. His show 'Playas', a photographic survey of a former mining town recently bought by the US government to serve as a real life training centre in the War on Terror, is currently on at London's Photofusion gallery. More of his work can be seen at www.jasonoddy.com.
To see more of Ross Holden's work click here.
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