Circle of Truth: 49 Paintings Ending with Ed Ruscha

Circle of Truth is the visual equivalent of the childhood game of Telephone, where a message is whispered in the ear of the first person, then relayed from that person to the second, the second to the third, and so on. Along the way, the original message becomes so mangled that by the time it arrives at its final understanding the words hardly bear any resemblance to the original.

This domino chain started with a source painting created by Circle of Truth co-curator Shane Guffogg, whose work was delivered anonymously, along with a blank canvas, to the second artist in the Circle. Each subsequent artist then received an identical package: an anonymously created previous artist’s painting, a blank canvas, and the instructions to find and paint their response to the “truth” they perceived in the painting they were presented. This process was repeated through 49 artists over a period of nine years.

Truth itself is a complex idea. Is it subjective? Does truth exist? If it does, is it a constant or does it vary? How do we decide what truth is?

This exhibition presents an opportunity for the viewer to see how information is received and interpreted by each artist, then passed forward to the next. It is an exchange of ideas that is informed by each artist’s life experiences. Each work of art is instilled with the artist’s personal truth. It exists in a variety of layers, not only in the work itself, but also in what each of them have written, and in the arc that is clearly visible between artists. In addition, there are truths evident that were not meant to be revealed.

The resulting exhibition provides a compelling insight into the creative process. The particular vision each artist brings to this Circle of Truth shows us just how differently we all see the world. Sequentially hung from the first painting, Shane Guffogg’s musing on the spatial ratio of the Golden Mean, it evolved to painting number 49 by Ed Ruscha, who muses on an alternative truth with his work titled “In.” Ultimately, it is the viewer, the 50th in line, who must be the arbiter of what they judge as true.