Notes

Picking up the pieces, the fragments, the sparks, Cathy Abraham attempts to find a centre. A still, unmoving point on which to focus. To this end, her practice turns on an underlying structure that employs numbers, symmetries, and repeated action as a means of transcending the self. Her work finds resonance in the Kabbalah’s numerical interpretation of holy texts, where every Hebrew letter is given a value, and each number, in turn, is lent a spiritual significance. The number 18 and its multiples, which have come to symbolise life in mystic tradition, are central to the artist’s practice; where ghosts and the living, the accepted self and its disavowed darkness, find a place to coincide.
In counting accumulating brushstrokes, Abraham surrenders to all that overwhelms her: from the insignificance of life to the vastness of the universe. By focusing on this method, she finds a sense of stability and presence, and becomes attentive to the composite vibrations of different pigments. Gradations of colour, fragments of brushstrokes, gold dust representing the weight/weightlessness of the soul – all coalesce to reveal the sparks of light and fallen shards from a world of brokenness.
As we are inextricably tethered to our soul, the brush is tethered to the stroke. At first laden with paint, the brush begins to make its mark, yet through the sequence of strokes its colour diminishes until there is only a fragmented residue which Abraham has called ‘ghosting’. This intricate binding continuously affects the marks, lending them a metaphysical significance. Contrary to the practice of relentless repetition, these ‘ghostings’ convey a sense of instability and transitoriness, and allow for a haunting presence to emerge. This shaping gives form to that which has been unacknowledged, forgotten and repressed, the shadow of historical wounds and past traumas that are at once indistinct yet continue to be felt, now held within the relational field of the painting.