The Fifth Quarter

2005 - Painting (Painting)

175 x 200 cm

Toby Ziegler

The Fifth Quarter might have taken its mysterious inspiration from the eponymous Stephen King story collated into the Nightmares & Dreamscapes collection. Various vanishing points and interior perspectives, like in another painting dated the same year called Continental Breakfast , create a complex matrix in which motifs, shadowy or geometric forms coexist to further confuse the map of this space. A disturbing yet alluring virtual reality composed of a medley of seemingly abstract designs is depicted through digital and painterly means. Architectural and landscape paintings in reflective metallic paints are characteristic of Ziegler’s work shown at the time in Archipeinture at Le Plateau, Paris and Camden Arts Centre, London in (2006) and in his solo show Enter Desire at Chisenhale Gallery, London (2005). He was then known for using an industrial phosphorescent material called Scotchlight for its contemporary glow in order to blur distinctions between reality and representation.

Toby Ziegler is a British artist whose work first came to view in an exhibition called Expander in 2004. His paintings are based on photographs that he digitally manipulates to render them more abstract. His sculptures are closer to being figures and it is in a figurative direction that his painting is now going. These sculptures, therefore, are important transitional works. Most of Ziegler’s sculptures are made out of cardboard or paper and covered in numerals which he employs to piece them together. Like the paintings, the sculptures emanate from digital images. He uses computer-aided design to generate line drawings and then, with scissors and glue, pieces them together. The forms of his sculptures have a relationship to Cubism, whose spatial complexity Ziegler admires, and perhaps also De Kooning for their sexual overtones. The numerals make oblique reference to his father’s mania for indexing and cataloguing but are also used in scaling up the works. Toby Ziegelr was born in 1972 in London. He lives and works in London.

Colors:

• vanishing_point.n.01
• virtual_reality.n.01
• phantasmagoric.s.01
• matrix.n.03
• overlay.v.01
• imagination.n.02
• british