a shared show by Hana Carpenter and Elliot Collins

Land Body Time

This collection of work plays with the physicality of gestural mark making and with capturing and containing the body’s energy, which is an empowering creative act. The gesture moves from the body to the painted surface and lingers for a moment before shifting or being withdrawn.

The slow gestation of poetic moments start from somewhere deep and buried; down in the centre of one’s spine. The physical act of painting is a reminder that the artist will always be present.

Hana’s work references the real-time visualisation of sonography, which gives a glimpse into the body’s active subterrain. The paintings are biopsies, ambiguous organic structures, captured in a suspended state or moment. They hold themselves in a liminal borderland of knowing and unknowing.

Elliot’s work references deep time as well as the obvious yet sporadic way memory works. Flowing inwards or outwards, the river of memory continues. It can meander in the open for collective remembrance or sink into deep caverns of dark, cold, hidden journeys for only the rememberer to recall during those moments of silence.

Painting enables Hana to reclaim power and a sense of self. Fluid paint is employed in a physical and intuitive building and obliteration of form, the entropy, alchemy and agency of mark making. Her gesture is her voice.

Painting gives Elliot a chance to exhale. It stands in for him when he can’t be there to wave the flag of understanding or consideration. Words are employed just under the surface of the paint to recall things we’ve lost or act as reminder, a memorial about a far to specific memory for public good. His words are his voice.