5 UNIVERSE AND OBJECT DOES every work of art have a certain precision about something, a certain concentrated exactness, a quality of particular existence?—and does every work of art, nevertheless, present in some fashion the meaning of the whole universe, something suggestive of wide existence, something that has an unbounded significance beyond the particular? —Eli Siegel, from Is Beauty the Making One of Opposites?
In this 11” diameter circle are hundreds of irregular metallic shapes, on a field of black. Astonishingly, all these similar, tiny cell-like shapes have subtle differences: no two are alike. Juthstrom has carefully composed them, positioning weightier darker gold circles underneath thinner, lighter gold circles that seem to float above them. We feel, as Eli Siegel asks about Universe and Object, “a certain precision, a certain concentrated exactness.” And yet at the same time, Juthstrom’s work conveys a sense of galaxies and infinity—“wide existence.” I was surprised to see that the multitude of layered shapes seem in motion. And look at those small white streaks darting within that fantastic web. All this in an exact 11” circle! —Dan McClung