OPS
Carbon fibre, Aramid, Diolen and Kevlar are synthetic filaments that are woven together to form high strength material. They have a wide range of applications but are frequently used in the fabrication of tactical weaponry and armour. Arranged in certain laminations, resin impregnated combinations of these fabrics are capable of deflecting projectiles and blows from sharp objects.
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In 1982 and 1997 Gerald Jan Van Bladeren attacked two separate paintings by Barnet Newman on display in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. In statements made following his arrests for these acts of defacement Van Bladeren sought to justify his actions by claiming Newman’s artworks were instruments of ‘vicious ideologies’. In 1958 the Stedelijk Museum was one of the touring venues for ‘The New American Painting’, a landmark exhibition that featured four canvases by Newman. This and other cultural events of the period were organised by individuals now believed to have close ties to the Central Intelligence Agency.
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Joseph Masheck first published ‘The Carpet Paradigm’ in the September 1976 issue of Arts Magazine. In this essay Masheck outlined an alternative method of understanding the flatness of painting, by historically reappraising conversations around illusionism and representational imagery that had taken place in the decorative arts. His thesis expressly intended to outflank formalist commentators whose critical frameworks were predicated on rigid notions of disciplinarity. By collapsing the distinction between painting and other forms of artisanal labour Masheck sought to propose an open system in which a more diffuse quality of wovenness predominates.
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OPS as in operations. Computationally programmable, subject to environmental conditions and human error.