Signs and Symbols is a collection of three audiovisual artworks by Terry Flaxton. The collection is concerned with the presence or absence of humans in the world. In Flaxton’s earlier works for Sedition such as the recent
Anthropocene and
Immeasurable Heaven collections he has explored a universe without a trace of humans; non-objective art and abstraction were both used as methods to propose that state. In previous works Flaxton has very much concerned himself with what humans do to make meaning in the world. In
Signs and Symbols, three works are posed together to highlight both the darker side of the human psyche
(part one) and their absence as in
Presence (part 2).
Presence is concerned with what might accompany humans in the world – the idea of a creator – and with how we are to recognise, understand or know its the presence of such a creator. In part 3,
Lamentation there is no strong emphasis on a 'for' or 'against' when it comes to human behaviour – this work simply notes the unfolding of human behaviour in the world. Various strategies are employed throughout the collection and, as Flaxton agrees has shown before with his work on Sedition, the artist's work in this collection is poised always between abstraction and representation.