Rebbelib were navigational charts created by the sea-farers of the Marshall Islands in Micronesia. They are essentially abstract descriptions, in sticks and found objects, of the spatial relationships between islands, ocean currents and wave patterns. Each chart is particular to its creator and as they were never actually taken to sea they are, in essence, mnemonic devices.

I use rebbelib to navigate my space, or more specifically to resolve ideas of 3-dimensional space onto an essentially 2-dimensional plane. Although rebbelib are traditionally interested in the interaction between sea and land I have adapted these charts to map interior spaces, the moors and tors, with their pathways and their “tuned” relationships with light and weather.

R-9 and R-11 represent wave sequences bent or refracted around an island, observed or imagined from differing perspectives; these are snapshots of visually dynamic phenomena. R-8 and R-12, on the other hand, represent the gravitational and erosional effects that imperceptibly part and relocate the granite exposures that form the landscape of Cornwall’s spine. Others allude to field systems, geological strata & fragmentation and the pathways & transient vectors that transect them.

The motifs contained in these rebbelib re-occur in my paintings; the grids, lattices, blocks and other geometric forms.