Autochthone X2XI (Ten to Eleven)

This work is both an abstract painting and an alchemical experiment. Lennon writes, “ln 2011 l returned to the site of the Army Barracks near Winchester, where l trained as a rifleman… lt was while l was sanding a block of Aluminum that l noticed the stubborn refusal of my arm to reach for the paint l had intended to use on the aluminum, it gradually dawned on me that the ground l was sanding was in fact making its own pigment and all l needed to do was to add water and this thing would appear as itself. lts own source and object. Like a calligrapher’s ink block.”

Thinking more expansively about the metallic surface of the painting and pernicious uses of metals, Lennon dedicated this work to the Nazi resistance fighter from Wisconsin, Mildred Harnack, who was executed by guillotine in Berlin in 1943.