The painting's title, "Dijkstripe," refers to the Dijkstra algorithm which is used to determine the shortest path between nodes. By coopting the same objective as Dijkstra as a painting process, indeterminate and strange imagery arises, even though mathematical failure is inevitable. 'Stripe' acknowledges the artwork's appearance and is a cataloguing mechanism.
Here, the first underpainting stage involved hasty and exaggerated gestures, where the paint took on a life of its own. The uneven indigo ground of "Dijkstripe" has visible brushstrokes that change direction frequently and tonal shifts where the brush was reloaded.
As the painting continued, algorithms were devised in response to the disorganisation of the ground. Typically, these are formalised painting rules that accentuate any pre-existing repetition and patterns amid the irregularity of the surface materiality, detracting from and concealing disorder. For example, aligned or similar features are systematically and uniformly highlighted or linked: green bands were painted around the dark splashes of indigo to start. Then pale yellow dots were painted between them to delineate the stark contrast between the dark edges and pale tones of the indigo brushstrokes. Each yellow dot was subsequently linked to two others; the colour of the connecting line was determined by its direction. Once these processes were complete, a border was painted that contained all these algorithmic interventions.
Each painting develops its own regulatory system that evolves over time, escalating in complexity. Emergent patterns, forms and structures appear from beyond my imagination. My regulated painting process serves as a metaphor for the complexities, inequities and paradoxes within our socio-economic systems. - Katie Pratt, 2024