Statement

Randy Gibson singing <em>Apparitions of The Four Pillars in The Midwinter Starfield Symmetry under The 72:81:88 Confluence</em> in a setting of <em>Quadrilateral Starfield Symmetry A:L Base 11:273 in The 181 Profusion</em> at the 2016 Avant Music Festival
Randy Gibson singing Apparitions of The Four Pillars in The Midwinter Starfield Symmetry under The 72:81:88 Confluence in a setting of Quadrilateral Starfield Symmetry A:L Base 11:273 in The 181 Profusion at the 2016 Avant Music Festival | Photo by Steven Pisano for Avant Media

Since 2009 my work has been concerned with the expressive potential of a single set of numerical relationships I call The Four Pillars. Originally conceived as a single harmonic chord for musical compositions, these numbers now guide my practice to new methods of expression as they assert themselves in the physical and conceptual realm beyond their musical beginnings. By focusing my practice on the perception of time, I have made a conscious shift away from specific materiality and toward a purity of experience.

My art exists as an ecosystem of related works which continue to refine their own systems. My visual work relies on the same compositional principles that guide my choices as a composer, and I approach all of my work with the same aesthetic question: how can this work change how we perceive time?

I explore sound (sine waves, live performers, harmonic filtering), slow and subtle change, color, space, and material. By rooting my work in a self-contained system I am able to focus my experiments in each new work to a small set of parameters. I learn from these experiments and refine my system, discovering new relationships within the work itself and across mediums. Since 2003 I have studied with seminal Minimalist composer La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela, one of the first artists to use light as her medium. Their uncompromising approach to creating work - perfecting a single concept over years and even decades - has provided a strong foundation for my working methods.

I was raised under the expansive skies of Colorado, spending many nights gazing at the stars and galaxies in the high mountains, or watching immense swaths of sky turn dark at twilight, or become rich with texture during the first moments of a storm. These early formative experiences have become hallmarks of my work. At the periphery of perception, I create subtle shifts in sound, movement, or color that harken to the edges of the horizon and a sense of time beyond our daily constraints.

What fascinates me most is how time itself can become manifest through object, space, and performance. After experiencing a profound moment of chronostasis during a performance of one of my works in 2016, I have been chasing this dream of an art that can stop time. Time is subjective, and a decidedly individual experience, but I believe that through attentiveness and compositional choices, I can dramatically alter the perception of time for those present.