Natural earth mineral pigment, wax & gesso on canvas and museum grade aluminium stretcher

50 x 50 x 4 cm

The painting’s geometry is defined by a central vertical division that evokes a subtle order disrupted by cracks. The gesso is made using an ancient recipe, composed of ground sedimentary rock bound with gelatine and water. As the surface dries, the canvas contracts, giving rise to spontaneous breaks beyond the artist’s control. Like the Moirai goddess Atropos, whose fierce feminine shears determine the precarious line of fate, these fissures cut through the composition with elemental energy. Overspilling the geometry, the defiant cracks refuse to be contained.

What art historian Ralph Mayer once regarded as ‘highly undesirable’ flaws, Gunn embraces as unique marks. The broken lines are like drawings and are embedded in the surface. The painting becomes a fusion of material, process, and time; and a testament to fragility, persistence, and the poetics of space.