Emma Kunz – Cardinal Points

Swiss born Emma Kunz, loosely considered a visionary or spiritualist artist, produced a set of complex drawings that employed strict symmetry and geometric transformations of lines and crystalline shapes. Her grounding in meditation reveals itself in her works through the mandalic repetition of motifs, the use of cardinal poles and in some cases Sri-Yantra like configurations. These works could be seen as machines for meditation and if we are to take up Carl Jung’s point of view that, psychologically, mandalas were drawn to create a sense of harmony and unity by representing the broken being made whole – it may be easier to appreciate Emma Kunz’s work on a philosophical and metaphysical level.

There is a periodicity in Kunz’s drawings that remind us of John Whitney’s early computational film work, in particular his film Arabesque. Not surprisingly both artists were preoccupied with the harmonic resolution of linear elements and the counterpoint of their concurrent forces.

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