“Landscape” is the natural world interpreted from a human viewpoint. It is a cultural and aesthetic construct, as much to do with the framing, as it has to do with semiotics. The traditional landscape format is based around a horizontal rectangle, however this does not reflect how we view the world – rather it is an art historical convention. Tilting a square format camera 45 degrees on its horizontal-vertical axis, produces a sensory shift that better replicates the human field of vision.

The Lozenge Series began as an exploration of framing landscape, but it soon became clear that something else was happening. The essential geometry of nature coalesced in this compositional shift. 

This effect was understood by Piet Mondrian who experimented with it in his abstract paintings. Terming the results “neo-plasticism” Mondrian’s work sought to balance horizontal and vertical forms derived from nature, in particular trees, within square or lozenge frames. This ongoing series reflects a similar preoccupation with nature’s architecture.

©David Axelbank