PAINTBOX FOR EVA

Symbolic of many things, the mirror has come to stand as a metaphor for painting.
Offering a virtual gateway through which to see the represented world, each mirror is an
image in and of itself, it’s framed illusion an apprehension of the real. Such allusion to
the painted surface has long fascinated artists, to whom the myriad angles and reflections
are as mesmerising as the world outside. Exemplifying the ambiguous relation between
reality and artifice, the mirror embodies the very essence of painting and exists as the
ideal medium through which to explore the demystification of artistic process.

Presenting four works in series, Laura Buckley’s recent move into video reveals an
exploration of painting and illusion that unites the decorative with the filmic, the actual
with artifice in a challenge to the perceived limitations of painting.

With each film edited to form a series of rapid frames, the artist’s fleeting visuals reveal
the creation and deconstruction of abstract composition. Light and form flitter across the
screen in a hypnotic visual dance, the ephemeral colours and occasional figure imbuing
each projection with dreamlike properties. Vibrant hues affirm the primacy of pleasure and
point up the playful quality of the work. Poured directly onto the mirrored surface, or
drizzled and daubed across the canvas, paint appears pleasing in its brightly saturated
colours. Fraught with complex potential interpretation, the bold materiality of the paint is
flattened and put in conflict with the infinite depth of the mirror, which serves to
confound the image, our understanding of illusionistic space challenged by the dense
opacity of a material more typically employed in the service of representation. A
seemingly arbitrary reflection of trees, caught within one reflective surface, (Mirror
Painting), contrasts with the vibrant hues of man made paint as reality and artifice are
allowed to mingle in a unified space.

Buckley’s interest in the literal and abstract components of her works, which consist of
surface and paint, reality and illusion, lead her to explore aspects of a work of art that is
not visible, aspects that conventional painting masks. Seen pouring the paint and
rearranging mirrored supports, Buckley enters into her own aesthetic, a modern day Alice
in her own Wonderland. Shown as part of the creation, and not simply as the creator,
Buckley’s revelation of artistic process includes the viewer within the practice of
painting, just has her installation literally includes the viewer within the work.

In an inversion of the typical white cube, the projections reveal themselves in a blackened
space, the dramatic setting making direct reference to the artifice of theatre and stage.
Functioning as a symbolic entrance into the mirrored world, this blackened cube forms a
visual link to the films. With a partially mirrored ceiling, the installation draws the
subject from the video and simultaneously includes the viewer within its frame. That
which is represented becomes real, and in turn, the viewer becomes part of the illusion.

Buckley’s projections cannot be described as pictorial. They do not offer
three-dimensionality compressed into a picture when seen from a single, static point of
view. It does make sense, however, to describe her colourful, constantly shifting
scenarios as painterly. Their small scale conjures an intimacy more typical of the painted
picture, while their lo-fi quality points up the presence of the artist’s hand. Disorientating
and kaleidoscopic, Buckley’s visual landscapes are mindbogglingly layered. The
aesthetic of her work may defy neat categorisation or defined pattern, but instead we are
shown new meaning in objects thought to be understood and strange beauty in what was
once the everyday.

Hannah Vaughn


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