frank coldewey

The Carpenter effect is a phenomenon in which seeing a certain movement engenders a tendency to execute exactly that movement. Sometimes the thought of movement is enough to trigger it. The practice of pendulum divination and the use of a ouija board are somewhat associated with this effect.

In his current works, Frank Coldewey uses the Carpenter effect in a fashion independant from occultism. Instead of referring to the supernatural, the artist’s aims are quite earthly, pointing at how the here and now oscillates back and forth between chance and intention. His square images show lines that have been dripped onto canvas; they are mostly vertical, sometimes straight, and sometimes curved. In the production process physical movements are used to sound out how much control Carpenter effect grants the artist over his work – and, at the same time, how much chance the artist allows his pictures to have.

Artist Text