Exhibition text by Chloe Green
1,642 marks the number of hours Cairo Dwek spent creating the works in this exhibition. A testament to a practice defined by a certain meditative precision paired with the delicate intimacy of human touch in an era of accelerated, automated image-making.
Dwek has developed a language of dots that oscillates between optical illusion and painterly depth. Her works stand in deliberate contrast to the immense speed of contemporary visual culture – where images are generated in seconds – by embracing a slow, formulaic process that transforms data into rhythm and colour within immersive fields of perception. Through this slowing down, she connects with a spirituality intrinsic in considering the magnitude of space, encouraging the viewer to question their relevance within the vastness of her work.
Colour is central to this exploration. Blue and red, equal in pigment strength, vibrate against each other to create visual tension; gradients of orange, purple, and white disrupt the eye’s expectations, producing simulations of movement and void. At a distance, these meticulously placed dots dissolve into atmospheric landscapes and optical illusions; up close, they reveal a silent symphony of colour, echoing musical crescendos and sound graphs. Vertical lines act like notes, while spirals and ratios drawn from nature evoke momentum without literal depiction.
The works engage with pointillism and optical art – influenced by Bridget Riley’s optical dynamism, Seurat’s chromatic precision, and Albers’ colour theory. Her works reference Futurism’s fascination with speed and movement, yet they subvert its urgency through deliberate slowness. Each canvas becomes a paradox: technical yet tactile, mathematical yet organic, while engaging with contemporary questions of speed, data, and perception.
Dwek looks at data as both concept and aesthetic. Peaks and troughs of sound graphs, white and black noise, and the golden ratio inform her compositions. The dots suggest both stars in the cosmos and pixels on a screen, bridging the natural and the manufactured. Each painting begins with the darkest pigment and builds toward light – a mathematical progression that mirrors her interest in gradients, ratios, and the “rule of six.” This formulaic approach is not rigid but generative, allowing moments of disruption and improvisation.
Across ten pieces of varying scale and shape, 1,642 invites viewers into a vortex of colour and form. A space where technical precision meets human labour, and where the eye swings between chaos and harmony. In this tension, Dwek probes a resistance to fast imagery through a molecular breakdown of our surroundings.
