Adam Waymouth: Colour Code

About

Roman Road is very pleased to present Colour Code, a solo exhibition by artist Adam Waymouth. Featuring never-before-seen watercolour polyptychs from his latest body of work of the same title, Colour Code explores ideas of connection, drawing on the interconnectedness of beings, colours and forms.

Built from a fascination with colour and code, Waymouth’s most recent work looks at the relationships that different colours have with each other while continuing his interest in negative space. The works are built from a grid structure with each following a set of rules that dictates the arrangement. Waymouth is interested in the idea that by using the same format over and over with different variables on a large grid layout, that it ends up visually mimicking certain structures in both computers and mycelium networks.

In a similar way that binary code is made up of sequencing of ones and zeros, the works are compiled of simple brush strokes either facing one angle or another. Within each work, the same colours are repeated with only the slightest changes of position and quantities of brush strokes from one to the next. Like code or the branches of a tree, the individual components of the work are simple forms that then en mass become something completely different. In times where there are more and more of us, with more and more communication tools, we seem less and less connected. The work plays on this connectivity and disconnection through the medium of colour.

The works create a complex colour field that challenges the eye to find a focal point. Even though they are abstract and don’t hold any true figuration, individually they hold a sense of close-up viruses and bacteria, as well as gardens, flowers and forests. These pieces were made during the COVID-19 pandemic and global lockdown. Considering this period, there was a very conscious idea in finding a form of meditation in the process of making the works, while also the purpose to share an uplifting feeling of connectivity, both human and digital, and again: code.

There are 12 works in Waymouth’s ‘Colour Code’, each one made up of 24 individual watercolour panels. Traditionally, the nature of watercolour tends towards smaller work but by using a grid structure the artist enlarges the scale while keeping the intensity of the colours and medium. Hanging together they draw the viewer into an almost immersive experience, overwhelming them visually and enhancing the concept of pattern formula and grid.