A large part of Thomas Locher’s work is concerned with producing works in which objects have numbers ascribed to them. However, the system behind this ascription is incomprehensible. Again and again, whether in re-worked photographs or – as here – with smooth-surfaced, Astralon panels, Locher divides the pictorial surface and gives the individual fields numbers.

In the context of the applied symmetry, the picture construction is slightly disturbed. The composition, at this point strict, gets its lightness from the precision and abstract nature of the colours. In addition there is a slight shift of the areas in relation to the axes of symmetry.

That is all and that is enough for the picture – for a picture that “contains as much disorder as order” (Dan Cameron) – because it remains just that: an irritation of non-resolving, numeric  ascriptions to colours to proportion. The question forces itself onto us: is this irritation the real purpose of the work or an addition to the beauty of the picture?

Paul Katzberger, 2005 (translation: Tim Sharp)