“Cyclic Solitaire” by Peter Deckers

The See Here:  01 – 28 September 2015

The seasonal sun casts shadows on a solitaire ring,
showing how light and darkness shape experiences and perceptions.

In solitary moments, when I am alone,
thoughts gather and drift.

These moments of introspection and self‑reflection
can be deeply revealing.
They reach into the wide field of memory within my shadow‑self,
or rise newly formed
in the brief, shifting hour of light and shadow.

I stand within it, letting each thought come and go,
allowing it to drift through
those cyclic passages of moments.

Cyclic Solitaire unfolds in the quiet space between presence and disappearance. A ring casts its shadow, and from that shadow a second form is born — cut loose, set gently on the floor like a memory that has taken shape.

The shadow itself drifts across whatever lies in its path — wall, floor, angle — shifting its outline as the light turns, becoming a different shape with every surface it touches.
Light slips through the openings left behind, travelling through absence as if absence were a doorway.

Where the light lands, it stretches itself thin, tracing long glimmers across the cut‑out shadows.
The original ring, its shadow‑double, and the wandering light fall into a soft alignment — three versions of the same moment, each returning to the other in a slow, reflective loop.

Nothing here stays fixed.
Shadows become shapes.
Shapes become openings.
Light becomes a reminder of what passed through.
The familiar object repeats itself in altered forms, echoing quietly across the room, as if reality were practising its own reflection.

In this shifting interplay, the work invites a kind of listening — not to what is shown, but to what moves beneath it.
A sense that every form carries its own return.
That even the smallest trace can open into something larger.
That what we cast off, or overlook, or forget, may find its way back to us in another shape, another light.

Cyclic Solitaire rests in that loop:
the gentle turning of what is seen, what is lost, and what comes back transformed.

Materials: Silver Wattle (Acacia dealbata) rings, mass-produced solitaire custom jewellery rings, strings, halogen light.

Installation at the SeeHere, Tory Street, Wellington