Caroline discusses art and philosophyLast night we were treated to a double bill. Carolyn was opening her studio and had asked Michelle to bring her work along too. Carolyn Pigden's work started when she looked at renaissance paintings and realised how beautiful were the figures within them no matter how grisly the subject. She wanted to paint beauty and was advised the most reliable medium for the job is oils. To find a definition for beauty she studied the philosopher Kant. To represent this definition was not enough as she considered the view of the painting. So she was led to Walter Benjamin’s Reflection Theory. No value is absolute, it needs a reference to be appreciated. Heaven needs Hell, beauty needs ugliness. So now she is developing but in a subtle way these mixed messages.
Returning - Michelle Allen
Michelle Allen set out on a quest to paint the invisible or nothing. Surely this must be the most challenging prospect in the minimalist genre. She very nearly got there too with her transparent floating letters, her colourless suspended glass tubes and her entrapped dust particles. All this was ably brought to life in a monochrome video set to haunting music. Back from this brink she now thinks about parting and absence as indicated by an empty pair of boots or a disconnected telephone. These she renders in oils or interlaced acrylic sheet. Both the artists had prepared their presentations thoroughly to provoke our thoughts and to promise work that we will look forward to. I must get back to my Kant. Mark Tilley
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