Notation No. 08: Dark Grid & Pinpoint Stars

The surface is divided into a four-by-five grid of rectangular panels, but the divisions are so fine they almost disappear — you register the structure more as a rhythm than a border. Each panel is filled with dense, directional line work — some horizontal, some vertical, some crosshatched — in dark greys and blacks that shift subtly from cell to cell. Scattered across the whole surface are small white marks: some are clean dots, others have tiny radiating lines that give them a four-pointed star quality. They're distributed unevenly, with clusters in some panels and only one or two in others. The overall effect is remarkably quiet for how much is happening. It has the density of a charcoal drawing and the precision of a printed chart. Part of The Notation Studies, where each piece starts with a field and builds marks into it. This one is the most restrained entry in the collection — it asks for dim light and a closer look. The variation in the line work across panels rewards that attention, revealing texture differences that read as flat black from a distance. A black frame lets the piece bleed to its edges; a white frame would float it as an object on the wall.