Dirk Yates: Speed Bump Systems [Catalogue Essay]
In the exhibition Speed Bump Systems, Dirk Yates creates a series of spaces that explore the physical relation of the viewer to painting. In particular, Yates is interested in the combined use of mirrors and the two-dimensional planar surface of painting, in works which operate as tools for locating the
viewer in space. In doing so, these works initiate the spatial assessment of one’s own body in relation to the works, and in proximity to the bodies of others.

Of course, this concern for the viewer and their physical relation to painting in space is not new. In Western art, Margret Wertheim suggests that this interest in physical space can be traced back to Giotto’s proto-perspectival paintings of the early fourteenth century, where physical space is depicted for the first time with convincing depth, three-dimensionality and realism…

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