Ryan Leigh
Money for Old Rope, 2009, mixed media on graph paper, 56cm x 74cm
The Closest Place to Heaven, 2009, mixed media on graph paper, 56cm x 74cm
Death Mask I, 2009, mixed media on graph paper, 56cm x 74cm
Believe in String Theory, 2009, mixed media on graph paper, 56cm x 74cm
Traversing the Void (Virgin of the Rocks), 2009, mixed media on graph paper, 56cm x 74cm
Walk on Water, 2010, graphite on graph paper, 27cm x 21cm
Cargo Cult, 2010, graphite on graph paper, 71cm x 96cm
Fruit of the Pleroma After Turner, 2010, graphite on graph paper, 96cm x 144cm
Discussing Quantum Theory,After Eisenstaedt, 2010, graphite on graph paper, 19cm x 14cm
Triad, 2010, graphite on graph paper, 20cm x 20cm x 20cm
Ryan Leigh (b.1987 in Watford, United Kingdom) is interested in explanations of physical reality and man’s need for an all-encompassing ‘theory of everything’.
His works, frequently executed in lead pencil on graph paper, are intensely detailed, and predominantly question differing means of communication, for instance the ‘documentary’ drawing and how it has been used in scientific or religious contexts to express a given truth.
By splicing and cutting the diagrammatic image or juxtaposing and integrating it with other images, photographs or drawings from a different era or series of symbols, Leigh’s work both comments on the relationships within society’s different belief systems, and highlights the futility of the search for an objective truth.
The paintings don’t appeal to me too much, but the drawing of Oppenheimer “discussing quantum theory” is real nice and worth the venture on the web to come across it. The actual photograph, done by Eisenstaedt, which I looked up, also provides evidence the artist did a fine job copying it. Cross-comparing the drawing and photo work with the painting work, and realizing they are by the same hand, it points out to me how stuffy my taste is, and how ill-suited to the wideness of the enterprise of art. I need to rethink my standards.
I see now that the other works are probably drawings too.