In the Copal series, Rockburne explores the Golden Section, a mathematical ratio used since antiquity to produce harmoniously proportioned objects and spaces. The medium is brown butcher paper, which Rockburne coated on one side with copal—a varnish derived from tree resin, used for centuries to dilute artists’ paints. The contrast between the resulting glossy surface and the matte, unvarnished side of the paper illuminates the next stage of the process, in which the paper was folded according to the Golden Section ratio. Through the brown paper and the copal Rockburne hoped to evoke the radiant “golden–brown hue” she had observed in medieval Italian churches.
Dorothea Rockburne: Drawing Which Makes Itself, September 21, 2013–January 20, 2014.
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