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Ch'ien . . . Serigraph on paper, 48.4 x 48.4cm
Image: 40.5 x 40.5cm
First acquisition of the Surrey Art Gallery
Elements in the work and their transformation in the art of Jas since 1972.
- DUALITY - binary principle, the duality of nature, plus and minus, good and evil, male and female: represented by the use of black and white.
Transforms into the use of cool and warm colours, often with two shades of each, to represent the same. (see Squares - Circles in Room One of JCM Main Gallery)
- CIRCLE - Heaven, white: activity, the masculine principle (Yang). Symbol of perfection and eternity.
- SQUARE - Earth, black: passivity, the feminine principle (Yin). Symbol of the combination and regulation of four different elements (the two parts of each side of nature: evil can be positive or negative, good can be harmful or helpful, etc), also the four elements, the four seasons, the four stages of life, etc.
Transforms into a square of 4 x 4 squares (16 squares), divided equally between black and white (+ and -, warm and cool, etc), with two parts of each, i.e.; 8 white, 8 black = 1 +7 white, 1 + 7 black, 2 + 6 white, 2 + 6 black, etc. (see Codex Almada in Room 3 of the JCM Main Gallery)
- SQUARING THE CIRCLE - 'Circling the Square': a preoccupation of alchemists concerned with the union of opposites. Its aim is to obtain unity (harmony - beauty) in the material world as well as in spiritual life; over and above the differences and obstacles (the static order) of the number four and the four-cornered square. The concept of equating the circle with the square grew out of the concept of the rotating square.
Transforms into to the Squares-Circles series of computer art (diskette, 1991) and web site, 1995-6)
- SYSTEM OF VISUAL PATTERNS - represented by the central pattern of three bars: the Creative Trigram (Ch'ien) of the Chinese Classic, The I Ching or Book of Changes. I studied this book in a course given by Hellmut Wilhelm, son of the translator of the Chinese, Richard Wilhelm, at the Free University of Seattle in 1967.
Not wanting to use an existing system, I sought to uncover another. The result of my investigation (1974-76) is the Mraurovian Glyphs, represented by ink drawings completed in 1977-78 and most works in exhibition dated 1982 or later. (See the Codex Almada for the complete collection of Mraurovian Glyphs.)
- MANDALA - Hindu term for a circle: the visual equivalent of a mantra, indicated by the rectangles on the outside of the outer square (a mandala is always a squaring of the circle). A clear indication that the work is not only to be looked at and studied, but to be used as an object of meditation, i.e.; to assist the mind in entering a trance-like state of great fluidity and receptivity in which it is flowing, non-identified, serene and blissful (the essence of the centre).
Many of Jas' later works can be considered and used as mandalas.
- LABYRINTH - An architectonic structure, apparently aimless, and of a pattern so complex that, once inside, it is impossible or very difficult to escape. It is represented by the use of the labryinthian patterns found in the square areas. Entering the labyrinth (as well as creating it)is a journey, a path which leads to (or from) the essence of the centre.
Works which both proceeded and followed the making of Ch'ien utilize of this kind of structure, both in two-dimensions and in three; for example, when the Glyphs are used in combination to form a two-dimensional image or a three-dimensional sculpture, they are placed so as to form an a labyrinth in order to give the work its sense of completeness, unity, harmony and beauty. In some cases the use of this structure may not be readily apparent to the conscious mind but upon further viewing, may become so.
