The love of the infinite
Billy Leahy looks at Paul Mosse's latest exhibition at the Green on Red Gallery
An intricate spider's web dexterously hangs in the inner workings of Paul Mosse's sculptural painting 'Triangle', which dominates the entrance of the Green on Red gallery on Lombard Street. The accidental addition was no doubt a welcome one for an artist, whose aesthetically organic work builds up naturally into an ordered chaos, as layer after layer of varied material is meticulously added. Mosse's works are adroitly poised in, as he explains, "the tension between control and anarchy – everything almost falling apart – but still held together by a bigger system".
It has been two years since Mosse's last show at the gallery and though his visual language and techniques have remained constant, the current exhibition is a strikingly more cohesive and assured affair. The works remain intricate, detailed and unruly, and have a more balanced feel than previously – but thankfully none of the visual delicateness has been forfeited. The title of the show, Amor Infiniti, is derived from art historian EH Gombrich's The Sense of Order, in which he uses the term horror vacui to describe the desire of the decorator to go on filling any void, but suggests amor infiniti – the love of the infinite – would be a more fitting description.
The highly structured element of Mosse's works is probably best appreciated from a distance, whilst on approaching the work the anarchistic minutiae reveal themselves, with materials such as rusty nails, resin, sawdust and polystyrene jostling for position. Many of the larger works display signs of organic decay, as if an army of ravenous wood-munching vermin had marched on Mosse's studio and devoured half the work, leaving the remainder to rot, crumble and decompose.
The balance between this organic anarchism and the overall structure and discipline of the works is constantly achieved, with stability steadily surfacing from the internal disorder. In the work '3 ?', for example, it appears as though a sizable part of the painting has become detached from the rest of the work, revealing the inner workings, where cut-up paper, paint in clear resin and charcoal form the backdrop. This uneasy accrual-versus-removal relationship at times seems to recall the aesthetic motives of Nouveau Réaliste 'décollagists' such as Jacques Mahe de La Villeglé, while consistently the influence of the large painting structures of Frank Stella is apparent.
This interplay between destruction, chaos and randomness, and the solidity of the whole, reflects the balance often apparent in nature. So it is no surprise to learn that Mosse draws a large amount of inspiration from the landscape, incorporating physical, tactile and visual elements into his work.
The result, although not immediately apparent, is a complex landscape painting, where nature's processes are given precedence over the quest for verisimilitude, which is so often the goal of more traditional painters. The intricate and meticulous method of accumulation employed by Mosse corresponds to these natural processes, with the artist previously describing his preference for "the slow-process based approach to work" which he hopes will "keep on giving off things over the years".
With so much detail on what is generally a large scale, it is easy to believe that Mosse has indeed achieved this goal. The painstaking effort on Mosse's part is clearly apparent and, in return, the works demand a large amount of attention and time from the viewer to explore their layers, balance and detail – and maybe to even find something as small as a spider's web.
?More Paul Mosse's Amor Infiniti runs at the Green on Red Gallery until 25 June. www.greenonredgallery.com