EnquireIntroduction
Work from the series and exhibition “Empty Coats”. Blending the heraldic with the optical, August Krogan-Roley’s ”Empty Coats” each present themselves as a pictorial game. Littered with cues – winding roads to follow, carved out recesses to occupy, and barriers mounted to intrusive vision – they stem from the artist’s ongoing interest in the compositional mechanics of world-building. One of the strongest influences upon this body of work is the organisation of pictorial space found in medieval coats of arms. In particular, carved stone artefacts in the Raidkivimuuseum (Carved Stone Museum) in Tallinn have exerted an important influence on the development of this body of work, although any reference to such objects are indirect. ”Empty Coats” repurpose heraldry for a secular age, rendering it in materials scoured from the artist’s nearby surroundings.
