David Sprigs creates art that lies in the space between the second and third dimensions. He explains: “I explore phenomena, space-time and movement, color, visual systems and surveillance, the strategies and symbols of power, and the thresholds of form and perception.” Most people know David for his unique large-scale 3D ephemeral-like installations that use a technique that he pioneered in 1999 using the layering of transparent images. He calls these works “spatial-image sculptures” or “stratachromes.” Stratachrome is a term David developed to mean layered color, taking color into three-dimensions. “Strata is Latin for layers, and chrome is Greek for color. These installations are really best experienced in person as photography and video just doesn’t capture them,” he shares.
His first large-scale installation was Axis of Power, which was shown in the Sharjah Biennial 9 in the UAE. “The large scale was important to me to visually overpower the viewer and control their perception. The viewer is immersed in the hybrid space between two and three dimensions of the artwork and are forced to move around to comprehend it.”
David’s style has evolved many times over since receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University in Vancouver, and Master of Fine Arts from Concordia in Montreal. He has created art that ranges from cartoons to traditional-style oil painting and stone sculpture. But after developing his layering technique 20 years ago, he continued to explore this type of work.
Using an airbrush and spray gun, his style of painting in the layered space is often a “blurry” style, where apparent forms seem to have no boundary and bleed into the surrounding space. “It is an interesting notion for me to have a sculpture without a defined boundary. Umberto Boccioni and the Futurists also had this fascination and made their subjects part of their environment,” he says. “In reality there is no real boundary between one thing and another–just collections of atoms moving through other atoms.”
This year, David plans to create a major new work series on the color black along with realizing some exciting new works in his Vision series.
