Aran 2005

This gelatin silver print, Aran, captures Sean Scully’s eye for finding the monumental in the mundane. Look at how the stones are stacked – not perfectly, but with a kind of rough rhythm, a physical, material process. It’s like seeing a painting being built, layer by layer. The image is all about texture: the rough, weathered faces of the stones contrast with the soft grass at its base and the hazy sky above. Each stone has its own shape and tone, a unique character that somehow fits into the larger whole. It’s a play of light and shadow, a meditation on form, evoking a tactile sense of depth. I see connections to Agnes Martin, in its quiet, minimalist approach. But where Martin uses color, Scully sticks to monochrome, emphasizing the raw, structural elements. It’s less about what you’re looking at and more about how you’re seeing.