Coddiwomple

Coddiwomple is an exhibition of drawings and paintings by conceptual artist James R Ford.

The term coddiwomple means to “travel in a purposeful manner towards a vague destination”. Within visible abstraction we instinctively search for patterns, recognizable shapes, and formal figures, but there is no right answer to the subtly evocative Painted Arrangements and Potential Drawings. They are at once straight-forward and cryptic; the marks are purposeful but the destination is vague. They brim with abstract formalities and semiotics that switch between recognition and obscurity.

Artworks usually manifest as some points of reference for the viewer to interpret in a predefined way; we metaphorically ask them to join the dots but they will inevitably join them, or not, in their own way. Like ‘Schrödinger’s Cat’, until these paintings and drawings are perceived as something by the viewer, they are in flux, undefined. At the same time specific and nonspecific, they could be seen as representational guides, chance pareidolia, or simply abstract arrangements.