V22 ASHWINSTREET
Someone once said that painting means the painting of space. The paintings in 'Images in the Vaguest Sense' work with this in mind. Each picture operates like a construction site assembled from colour surfaces and a mass of drawn lines. Allusions to architecture are never far from this work; it provides each painting with a narrative which in turn motivates the design and the rhythm of the inscriptions. However, what counts as architecture for this painting practice is a question that runs through the exhibition. The paintings present a number of different sites, ranging from concrete structures such as bunker and stairwell spaces to oblique geometries in the architecture of newsprint to cartoon 'Zs' that build a kind of drifting space.
These paintings, however, are less concerned with reproducing a source or reference than they are with finding productive openings. Unlike the architect who may, for good practical reasons, have to fulfill the narrative established by a plan, the meaning of construction here occurs precisely in those moments of deviation. Each picture seeks to capitalize and find value in the ways visible form, while soliciting readings, also frustrates or sets up mutations in reading. If there is one persistent intention across the work, it resides in the understanding that perceiving and reading are activities produced in a work rather than determined in advance of it.
The title of this show refers to the belief that images tend to form even in the most abstract of spaces. It also suggests that perception is a vague sense and that what we think we see is not always that simple.
© 2008 V22 London Ltd