miart

For this presentation, Edward Kay introduces a series of ten paintings of apples each organised around the same compositional structure yet marked by subtle variations. While the paintings may initially appear identical, further observationreveals differences between them. Each apple is cut into a section, exposing its core, where the placement of seeds, flesh, and shadow creates moments of differentiation that resist a singular reading. Rather than reinforcing stability, repetition here operates as a process of becoming; each iteration not a copy, but a divergence that reconfigures the space of interpretation. The paintings exist as discrete objects and as a series in flux, where meaning is continuously renegotiated through the interplay of difference.

Rendered in oil and tempera on board, the paintings recall the luminous surfaces and technical precision of Renaissance panel painting, yet their serial presentation disrupts the authority of the singular image. By engaging with historical modes of representation while foregrounding repetition as a generative force, Edward Kay positions these works within a shifting territory of knowledge, one in which meaning is not fixed but continually reconstituted through the act of looking. In this sense, the works resist hierarchical structures of interpretation, instead forming a network of interdependent variations where knowledge does not unfold linearly but through movement, connection, and transformation. The series does not offer a singular truth but an open-ended field of perception, where each iteration is both distinct and relational.

In an era where digital mediation has flattened hierarchies of visual production, Kay’s practice reactivates painting as a mode of critical engagement rather than a purely aesthetic pursuit. His works are not merely pictorial objects but inquiries into the conditions of visibility, the economy of images, and the paradoxical role of painting in a world saturated by reproducible media. Through a methodologically rigorous yet conceptually elusive approach, Kay positions painting as both a historical anachronism and a contemporary imperative, a dialectical framework through which the dilemmas of representation are both enacted and undone.