Laurence Watchhorn (b. 1999) is a South-London based artist and DJ who holds a BA in Fine Art from the Slade School of Fine Art. He is the co-founder of OOZ, an arts and music collective. Recent exhibitions include a two-person show at Sim Smith; In Rapture at The Bomb Factory, Marylebone, his solo show Cypher Vision; As Above, So Below in Sydney; Echoic Vision, London.

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My pictures are floor-bound wanderings that end up being hooked to the wall. Sound, frequency, colour, play, rhythm, symbol and remnants of text are mapped out and echoed throughout the work in ecstatic, considered and alchemical compositions. The work explores a mode of abstraction that took it’s roots on dance-floors and then weaved it’s rhizomes through ancient history and spirituality, British rock art, altered states of consciousness and metaphysical philosophy.

The work is contained within un-stretched canvases with rounded corners so to release myself from the geometric rigidity of my immediate environment in pursuit of the soft, round and organic form. The loose hanging of the canvas animates the work and allows for a subtle dance with the viewer. They are offerings that at once scream for, and whisper of an animistic relationship with the world – speaking of a reverence for and equivalence with nature.

Organic and technological code is considered in the work. For example DNA - the genetically coded building blocks of all life on earth - as well as algorithms and digital programming. Symbolic forms teeter on the edge of representation, at once satisfying and frustrating a very human urge for rational decryption.

Intuitive marks and brushwork are paired with well-worked portions of paint. The application and reduction of paint is considered to form biomorphic and code-like structures mapped alongside symbolism and poetry. A tension is held between a playful and vibrant dynamism and a theoretical pursuit for meaning. A questioning of contemporary society in an attempt to move closer to a natural order of things.

They are works that confront the viewer with, as well as invite them into, mirrored images of inner and outer realities which question the way we communicate, the limits of our language and the potential for re-enchantment with the natural world.