FIRST WAVE

‘First Wave’ by David Spriggs is a Stratachrome artwork that was created during the COVID-19 pandemic and exhibited at the Oku-Noto Triennale in Suzu, Japan. Intense red colour flows through the space of a former fishing net warehouse in Suzu, the artwork is not projected light but a three-dimensional painting of painted layered transparencies. It is a stratachromatic representation of the beauty and power of nature using aesthetics to create an emotional response in the viewer. The artwork is made up of 90 transparent sheets painted with red paint, layered to create the appearance of a massive, incoming tsunami wave. The intense saturation of the red color, as well as its association with blood, adds to the emotional impact of the piece. The title of the artwork, ‘First Wave’, references both the current pandemic and to Japanese art history, specifically the famous Hokusai print, ‘The Great Wave off Kanagawa’.