IN A PURE LAND, ISIS GALLERY, LONDON, SEPTEMBER 2008.

Martin’s light works are conduits that operate at a level akin to a dream-state. As one’s gaze gravitates into the iridescent light-saturated colour of their interiors – lines intersect, surfaces reflect, shift and dissolve; perceptual ambiguities collide and mesmerise. Paradoxically, all this activity generates a wellspring of calm and reassurance. The mirrored surfaces are more than mere reflective devices or interludes. They attract and absorb their surroundings (including the viewer–the participant) and focus the resulting amalgam into an intense hovering band of coloured light. They offer a form of nourishment that we barely recognise – yet desperately seek. Worlds, both inner and outer, are gathered, enhanced and refined; they emanate a collective ‘goodness’ that is rare – it should be cherished.

Their visual conviction and authority are equalled only by their perfection and mystery. We engage with their articulate beauty via a visual experience that transcends the dystopia of intellectual noise – consequently we are placed firmly in the territory of ‘universal consciousness’. Such meditative calm is multiplied by their presence and disseminated with an integrity that is effortlessly convincing and sublime.

We are uplifted and changed. 

Richard Devereux

‘A LIGHTNESS OF BEING’

Coloured light reveals its greatest beauty when the channel through which it flows imbues it with a volume of infinite space, and when the light itself manifests a ‘surface’ more subtle than an atom’s depth.  

This extreme refinement of optical contradiction gives an experience that transcends sensations of form, and places the viewer in a beautiful and contemplative mental space. 

In this way, light brings the mind into a state of stillness and opens our awareness to our natural state of inner contentment – a lightness of being that is sufficient in itself.

Martin Griffiths, 2010

NOT THE IMAGE

Not the image or symbol of the object.
Not the object which holds or penetrates space.
Not the object which obstructs our gaze,
has a given distance from our place,
defines our scale or counters our physical form.
Not the surface which separates the form from its surrounding space.
Not the contour with its distinct edge.
But light and coloured light given surface, form, volume and mass – suspended, held,
celebrated as a transparent/translucent open, limitless experience.
Light and colour as objects of contemplation.
Light and colour that inspire thoughtlessness and peace.
Light and colour that speak to our inner self.
Light and colour.
Light.

ABOVE THE OBJECT

Not the object, but above the object, the infinite play of light.
Light rising, blending, merging, forming.
Not the mind, but above the mind,
consciousness floating, soaring.
Not the perceived or the perceiver, but the indivisible unity of consciousness.
High, exultant, balanced and real,
we become…
Unknowing, pure and innocent.

M.H.G., 2008