Description

Jim Lambie. Sunspots (2018). Digital print, hand-finished. 72 x 55 cm [28.3 x 21.7 in]. Variable edition of 40 works, signed and numbered verso. To coincide with the display of his work in the ISelf Collection: The End of Love, Jim Lambie has created an edition of 40 hand-finished prints especially for the Whitechapel Gallery. Similar to his floor work, Zobop, Lambie has used bands of vibrant colour to create a striking optical effect. Concentric circles give the illusion of movement or expanding space as they appear to reverberate outwards. Lambie, who is interested in music and pop culture, has created a kaleidoscopic image akin to the format of a phonograph record or a psychedelic rock n roll poster, as well as a pop art aesthetic alluding to the target paintings of Jasper Johns and Peter Blake. A burst of colour has been hand-sprayed by Lambie onto the centre, or bullseye, of each print. Drips of paint have hardened in relief from the flat backround, interrupting the optical illusion of the circles. The title of the edition, Sunspots, references similar visual phenomena: dark spots on the sun's surface or a sensory blast on the retina from staring into bright light.