Inspired by the track "Configurations" by jazz pianist Vijay Iyer.
The painting contrasts two registers. On one hand, geometric rigor: rectangles, verticals, and drawn lines. On the other, gesture and chance: drips, impasto, and variations in density.
"Configurations" is a track from the album Uneasy (ECM, 2021). Iyer performs it in a trio with Linda May Han Oh on double bass and Tyshawn Sorey on drums.
An album description notes that within the lexicon of jazz ensembles, the trio is perhaps the most demanding, with three instruments "triangulating" the compositions. For Iyer, "configuration" refers both to the organization of a trio and to the way three voices share the space.
Three voices, four blocks: interdependence. Like the offset rectangles, each instrumentalist occupies a territory while encroaching on the others. Neither the painting nor the trio operates on a melody-versus-accompaniment hierarchy; instead, they function through interacting planes.
Striated verticality: Repeated vertical brushstrokes evoke the cyclical patterns and ostinatos that often structure Iyer’s writing. Each streak is nearly identical, yet none is exactly the same—like a repetition that varies slightly with each pass.
The offset: Misaligned edges create an impression of rhythmic asymmetry or phase shifting—overlapping cells that do not align perfectly yet hold together.
Instability beneath the surface: The album is titled Uneasy, a reference to what Iyer describes as instabilities felt beneath the surface of things—a rising anxiety in American life. The painting shares the same ambiguity: an apparently ordered surface, yet drips, material fissures, and lines that destabilize the grid.
The canvas and the piece share a common idea: order as a process rather than a state. A configuration is never definitive; it is a moment of equilibrium between forces.