In a way all painted surfaces are preset and has its own characteristics. Surface determines the semantics of the painting to a larger extent. An oil painting of Christ made on canvas has a different meaning than the Christs adorning the walls of the chapels. Modernism was highly critical of surfaces as mediums became diverse. Medium specificity became a major lens of criticism. Harold Rosenberg claimed that painting is a performative site. Surface shapes the performance. For instance weave of the canvas can change the color and unprimed canvas reacts with paint differently than the primed ones. Some painters like Sean Scully and Gunther Förg explored painting on lead and copper surfaces.
Since most of my recent works are based on mathematics I was searching for a surface which will act as a suitable performative site. I chose cutting mat as it has a printed grid with values on it. The grid is a mathematical graph which let’s me plot precise forms and curves. The graph acts as the site for the mathematical forms to emerge and interact with each other. Semantically, graphs represent movement and position. The forms are constructed to form a Fibonacci spiral.