Leo Robinson | On Exactitude
9 Oct - 18 November 2023
…In that Empire, the Art of Cartography attained such Perfection that the map of a single Province occupied
the entirety of a City, and the map of the Empire, the entirety of a Province. In time, those Unconscionable
Maps no longer satisfied, and the Cartographers Guilds struck a Map of the Empire whose size was that of
the Empire, and which coincided point for point with it. The following Generations, who were not so fond of
the Study of Cartography as their Forebears had been, saw that that vast Map was Useless, and not without
some Pitilessness was it, that they delivered it up to the Inclemencies of Sun and Winters. In the Deserts of
the West, still today, there are Tattered Ruins of that Map, inhabited by Animals and Beggars; in all the Land
there is no other Relic of the Disciplines of Geography
The map described by Borges is an expression of geographic conviction. Terrain is organised and drawn within gridded lines of longitude and latitude. The yantra studies, included in On Exactitude and interspersed among Leo Robinson’s works, use a grid to express spiritual conviction. Each line, mark and block of colour is the manifestation of a ritualised process undertaken in a sacred space. Within these symbolic geometries, which in the Buddhist Divyāvadāna are considered ‘psychological apparatus’ used to guide meditation and attain a spiritual goal, colour corresponds to sound.
For Leo Robinson, who also performs and records as a musician, the conceptual links between the visual and aural are almost inconsequential. ‘The technology of religion and spirituality and how practices can be broken down are what interests me’, he says. A survey of his works shows his sources, associated with the realms of spiritual and religious faith, are a broad church. He plummets into the ancient Chinese text, I Ching, that explores the unconscious and has immersed himself in the Yoruba religion, Ifa. Any system that has he sees as having been developed to offer transformation becomes a part of his pallet. Images of jazz musicians, clippings of text explaining the phenomenon of psychic architecture, a sculptural icon and part of a bone, are just some of the components Robinson orchestrates to form his cosmographic collages.
Anachronistic and intercultural, works like Day-Strife-Sun-Power, including a photograph of two swords matched with a red fabric swatch and a knot of bungee ropes, or Night-Rest-Moon-Seed, featuring an iron tablet along with an image of a flower, feel implicated in an occult ceremony. A table is laid out with works — some deemed mantras, another an oracle— in an arrangement that evokes collective worship. Looking onto the assemblages and reading the handwritten notes provokes questions around the suggested, enigmatic practice. The compulsion to derive meaning from the items, forms and colours brought together is demonstrative of Robinson’s conviction that humans need abstract systems to structure their reality. And while he welcomes the suggestion that each element is symbolic, ultimately, he enjoys cultivating a practice where, as he says, ‘the goal is never actually attained’.
by Dr Cleo Roberts-Komireddi
Leo Robinson (b. 1994) lives and works in Glasgow. He graduated from the Manchester School of art in 2016. Recent solo exhibitions include The Infinity Card (2022), Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, UK and Theories for Cosmic Joy (2019), Tiwani Contemporary, London, UK. Recent group exhibitions include To The Edge of Time, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, Antechamber, Quench, Margate, UK, Bathing Nervous Limbs, Arusha Gallery, Edinburgh, UK, and tender spots in hard code..., Arebyte, London, UK (all 2021)
SELECTED WORKS
SELECTED WORKS
INSTALLATION VIEWS
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Untitled (cleansing ritual), 2022
26.5 x 35.5 cm
Watercolour, collage, Indian ink, thermal printed photograph, pencil on paper