Ur II : A Primordial Presence Held in Deep Time
Ur II belongs to the Ur series, a body of digital artworks that explores a state of the world prior to any recognizable form. Before named continents, before orientation, before land and water became distinct, Ur II remains anchored in dense, suspended matter. It does not depict a landscape or an event. It sustains a condition.
This work offers no horizon, no stable viewpoint, and no readable space. There is no foreground and no background. What emerges is a compressed field shaped by slow internal pressure, latent fracture, and restrained light. Ur II functions as a silent section through deep time, holding matter in suspension before separation takes place.
Ur II is not a decorative image. It is conceived as a presence to live with. The work does not seek immediate attention or visual consumption. It resists quick interpretation and rewards duration. The longer the gaze remains, the more the image reveals itself as tension rather than representation.
This approach is central to what I describe as a pedagogy of the gaze. Ur II asks the viewer to slow down, to stay, and to allow perception to unfold over time. Because nothing is illustrated or explained, the eye learns to read density, pressure, and buried light as primary elements. Meaning does not arrive instantly; it accumulates.
Within a space, Ur II does not aim to fill a wall. It gives weight to a place. The work is designed to endure daily presence, shifting light, and repeated encounters. It settles rather than asserts itself, remaining quietly active over time.
As part of the Ur series, Ur II does not narrate an origin. It remains within it. The image holds a condition where form has not yet stabilized and where matter has not resolved into legible structure. What persists is silence, density, and duration.
Ur II is available both through this site and on Singulart, allowing the work to circulate while remaining grounded in the conceptual framework of the Ur series.
For information about print availability and formats, please refer to the Unique Editions section of the site.
Deriving a Landscape
With Ur II — Derived Landscape, a secondary state emerges from the abstract work. The objective is not to compose a landscape, but to observe what occurs when dense matter momentarily accepts legibility under the influence of cold, gravity, and depth.
This image is derived directly from Ur II. The colour palette maintains a strict chromatic continuity with the abstract work, ensuring a direct material dialogue between the two while allowing spatial cues such as distance, relief, and atmosphere to surface.
Unlike the abstract version, which resists recognition entirely, Derived Landscape operates at the threshold of perception. Ice, valleys, and frozen water appear, but they do not stabilize into a scene. The image remains suspended between abstraction and representation, never fully resolving into place.
This is not a return to landscape as a genre. What emerges here can be described as an artscape: a spatial sensation shaped by pressure, erosion, and light rather than narrative or description. The image invites the eye forward without offering orientation or destination.
Deriving a landscape requires a different form of restraint. Recognition must be allowed without becoming dominant. Depth must open without constructing a horizon. Every decision is measured to preserve the silence and weight of the original abstract condition.
In this sense, Ur II — Derived Landscape does not stand apart from Ur II. It exists as a secondary reading — a moment where abstraction reorganizes just enough to become traversable, before returning to density.