ARTS MAGAZINE. September, 1981. p. 22.

John Davies portraiture is refreshingly direct, its strength dependent on an unambiguous presentation of specific perceptual problems. The medium is color and black and white photography; the image source, a cropped mug shot 19 x 22 inches. His method is to subdivide the basic image either laterally, horizontally, or diagonally into 1/2-inch zones (38 and 44) and reproduce each eleven or seventeen times, subsequently abutting identical zones into a reassembled image that stretches up to 27'7".

The immediate effect of a single work is threefold. Close up, one confronts a limitless and variegated surface seemingly disposed according to an imperceptible aesthetic order. (This is because the arithmetically determined but visually arbitrary information on each strip is rarely and barely sufficient to trigger the concept 'face'. As one moves out and around, comprehension expands to register a vaguely familiar, imprecise image that asymptomatically approaches the optimum view: a minimally distorted, though elongated, version of the original photograph.

Technically this is an interesting variant of the principles of anamorphism used in art since the 14th centurhy and first recorded in Jean Francois Niceron's "Thaumaturgus Opticus" (Rome, 1646) and Pere Du Breuil's "La Perspective Pratique" (Paris, 1649). Unlike his historical forebears, Davies does not attempt to introduce conical and cylindrical mirrors nor does he use a cylindrical lens to continuously stretch his image. Instead he takes advantage of the ease with which the photographic image may be enlarged and reproduced, mechanically subdivided, and then recombined to create a digitized and jagged approximation to conformal mapping. This technique lends itself to a range of visual experimentation that seeks to understand rather than to promote the mysteries of illusion.

Self-Portrait, H-44-11 (1980) is one of the first developed experiments. In it a vertical subdivision of the initial photograph has been multiplied and reconstituted to form a rectilinear image evenly expanded across the entire breadth. Mounted on the wall, it allows optimum coalescence when the moving viewer is close to the wall on either side of the picture. A similar treatment of the horizontal subdivision, as in the work Self-Portrait, V-38-11 (1980), permanently installed at the Center of Science and Industry in Columbus, Ohio, causes optimum coalescence to occur from vantage points above and below the picture. The slightly more elaborate diagonal cuts of Self- Portait D-58-11 (1980) and Portrait of Kriti, D- 58-11 create acute parallelograms needing greater physical distance and a high degree of perceptual sophistication to achieve image coalescence.

In the recently completed Portrait of Kriti, H-44-17 (1981), Davies has developed what might be called Anamorphic Pointillism. Here the original photograph has been multiplied seventeen times so that permuted sequences of strips (colored, red, blue, yellow and their admixtures) mix an equal amount of the three basic colors. Combined with black, these permutations present a continuously unique localized color field that, almost miraculously, coalesces into flesh tones when the eye is at a distance or angle that prevents individual resolution of the strips.

Charting the trigonometric variables that move the point of optimal coalescence for pieces placed on the floor, wall, or curved surface is a likely line of further investigation, as is ascertaining the degree and components of the visual sophistication necessary to reform various types of image. The second, less tangible goal, is possibly the more interesting in that it impinges upon the psychology of perception. Its fruitfulness is already indicated by extremely varied individual responses to the extant work; these range from rapid apprehension, experimentation and solution of the visual and philosophical aspects of the problem to the considerable difficulty experienced by some of recapturing the logic and moments of coalescence. mThis aspect of the work is enhanced by floor placement, for the distance of the eye from the picture plane is so constrained that selecting the angle of view becomes critically important. Further, in an effort to find a means to probe the way in which the brain constitutes segments of serialized information into whole structures, Davies is presently studying new but related techniques in video and film. It is apparent that limitless possibilities for creating visual stimuli lie within the simple premises of this work; its incisive development will depend upon the extent to which the artist is willing to impose limits and a sequence of intuitively conceived, but intellectually developed, conditions.

Precedents for methodical visual study abound. Since the construction of the Parthenon, nodes of concentrated interest in perceptual phenomena have culminated in the periods of the Renaissance, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, have informed the direction of those stimulated at the Bauhaus and have provided the impetus for the wide variety of perceptual experimentation in today's art.

When regarded as but a single aspect of the full spectrum of perceptual cognizance, careful experimentation applied to the determination and definition of visual experience makes a unique contribution precisely to the degree that it separates that which is quantifiable from that which is not. By concentrating upon specific problems it is possible to transcend individual and subjective expression to illuminate physical and mental constructs. This forms a basis for intra- and extra-disciplinary discussion based upon useful homology and, as it simultaneously explores and defines the interstices between that which is called art and that which is otherwise categorized, enlarges the linguistic capacity of all visual presentation.

O.K. Harris, September 8-13.

Betty Collings.