Caroline Walker
The Architectural Corner in Painting
My interest in corners is an architectural one, not because of the structural functionality corners possess but because of their possibilities in visual terms: the capacity to set things up in relation or opposition to one another. The corner position in an exhibition is often my favoured spot to show work, or at least the starting point when deciding how to hang a show. Why would it be preferable for work to be viewed on two short perpendicular walls rather than one long wall? Perhaps it is because corners open up the view, allowing contemplation of more than one piece at a time, setting up a reading of things in relation to one another. This is how artists work in their studios and really how we encounter the world – not as a linear series of events but as interconnected and related experiences. Our experience of architectural space is the same; understood not from a distance but in relation to itself and to us. The architectural corner serves as an intersection both physically and psychologically. Corners form a very important part of the way I think about space in painting, both in a physical sense as the edges which define the boundaries of the object itself and how this frames and edits what I depict, but also as part of a two dimensional play on three dimensional space which happens within the image depicted. If the corners of the painting demarcate its physical presence in the world, the architectural corner as subject matter points to the three dimensional world filled with perspectival space and depth beyond the confines of the picture plane. The corner in a painting is a fiction in the most formalist painting terms because it suggests a space, which cannot exist on a flat painted surface. The interplay between the illusionistic qualities of painting as a medium and what it seeks to depict has always fascinated me as an artist – that painting can be this juncture between reality and fiction. As subject matter, the corner performs multiple roles: it reveals or conceals information, can be a perceived place of safety, a container or marker of boundaries and limitations. As a narrative device, it positions us as viewers in the intimate space of the painting or implicates us in some unfolding scenario. The corner can act as the voyeuristic hiding point behind which we view the action or the architectural device that exposes something. The corner represents a meeting point between the formal play of illusionism at the heart of representational painting and the narrative possibilities suggested through its’ many psychological implications. |
Caroline Walker
Scottish artist Caroline Walker studied at Glasgow School of Art and the Royal College of Art, and is now based in London. She has had solo exhibitions in London, Bucharest, New York and Milan. Group exhibitions include Some Domestic Incidents at Prague Biennale 5 and MAC, Birmingham (2011), Nightfall: New Tendencies in Figurative Painting at MODEM ,Debrecen and Rudolfinum, Prague (2012/2013), and her work is currently included in the touring exhibition ‘Reality: Modern and Contemporary British Painting’, first shown at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich (2014/2015). Her work is held in collections including the Royal College of Art, Franks-Suss, Saatchi and Jimenez-Colon.
Current and forthcoming exhibitions include ‘The London Open 2015’ at Whitechapel Gallery, London, ‘Reality: Modern and Contemporary British Painting’ at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool and a solo exhibition at Space K, Seoul.
Current and forthcoming exhibitions include ‘The London Open 2015’ at Whitechapel Gallery, London, ‘Reality: Modern and Contemporary British Painting’ at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool and a solo exhibition at Space K, Seoul.