Art Exhibition: ‘Parallels’ by Sarah Shaw ** 5-30 July 2014 ** Naked Eye Gallery, Hove
‘One For Sorrow’ by Sarah Shaw
Having gained a B.A. in Fine Art from the Falmouth College of Art, Sarah Shaw now lives in Brighton and exhibits her paintings across the country. She is gaining increasing acclaim with her extraordinary oil paintings and her work is becoming highly sought after both in the UK and abroad.
Sarah’s exhibition at the Naked Eye Gallery centres around the theme of the Rorschach inkblot tests, a set of mirrored random inkblots which psychiatrists would show to their patients and ask them to describe what they saw. From this, the psychiatrist would diagnose a patient’s psychopathy/psychology. The visual sense of the inkblot tests, the associated psychology, and also the correlation to her own practice, inspired Sarah to create her own set of painted tests to form the basis of this new body of work.Whilst she states that she does not intend to convey any particular message to the viewer, she hopes to evoke a sense of ‘humanness’, be it through an emotional connection , shared thoughts around our universal experience of living through time, or in relation to mental, bodily or worldly restrictions.
‘These new paintings were inspired by the Rorschach inkblot tests and the theory behind them – that the subconscious/unconscious mind can be revealed by the study of ambiguous replicated imagery. I allowed the cards to generate imagery and ideas for painting, a self reflexive process left deliberately ambiguous in places to allow for the viewer to be transported by their own thoughts rather than dictated to by my own. The act of painting in itself seems to echo this process, revealing one’s own subconscious thoughts, though this does imply a lack of control over the imagery. I see the painting process as being not so much subconscious but rather a kind of accelerated consciousness in which decisions are being speedily made during the painterly dialogue to evoke or possibly reveal something of a deeper personal psychology. Ultimately the paintings speak of a belief in the enduring vitality of painting as a primary form of visceral and visual communication’.
‘The ‘Parallels’ exhibition runs at the Naked Eye Gallery, 5 Farm Mews, Farm Road, Hove, BN3 1GH from Saturday 5th July to Wednesday 30th July.
via Upcoming Exhibition.
Sussex ArtBeat 