E-Cyclorama Review

E-Cyclorama

Art is something we enter mainly on an emotional level, usually being physically separated from the process and end product. With Sanford Wurmfeld’s E-Cyclorama, however, the viewer is immersed in a symphony of shifting colours and subtle tones. This is Wurmfeld’s second ‘essay’ in this format, the first being Cyclorama 2000 which appeared at the Talbot Rice Gallery in 2004. Initially we are stuck by the sheer scale of E-Cyclorama, Wurmfeld’s canvass of colour stretching around a huge oval structure and absorbing the viewer. Taking inspiration from Seurat and Rothko, Wurmfeld encourages us to consider both the use of colour and the overall effect this has on the piece. In many ways this is the logical conclusion of Seurat’s style; E-Cyclorama at once creates a panoramic single image, and at the same time an almost infinite multitude of harmonious colours. We are thus presented with something of a contradiction: a piece of clinical science and tone and an electric landscape of sweeping beauty. Closely inspected we realise why it took around a year to paint: the slight variations in tone being exactly measured, and meticulously applied. On stepping back the horizon of colour, ranging from the brilliant to the neutral; the intense to the subdued, is anything but scientific. Despite a lack of human imagery or scenes, and an almost pedantic attention to detail, we become hypnotised by a single scene lacking in any depth, but exuding an energy and timeless quality. E-Cyclorama demands attention and is impossible to turn your back on.