Stillness in Transit is an exhibition of new artworks that will be on display at Lethbridge Gallery 6-17 February 2016.
As children, my brother and I would play outside my parents’ shop after school. I vividly remember exploring the neighbouring convenience store or leaping across the bright yellow parking kerbs (those hi-vis concrete blocks at the end of parking bays that stop drivers from going too far). My parents leased a tenancy in an unassuming single-storey building that housed about six other companies. It was a rectangular building, with a flat roof and a vibrant orange corrugated steel awning that displayed modest printed signs for the businesses within. As we played, the afternoon sunlight gave the building a captivating glow. My brother and I were part of this place. We were explorers. This was a magical world we had discovered.
I still wander through suburbs and towns with the sense of awe that I felt for that old building. These are the places I know. My memories are ghosts in their streets.
“Stillness in Transit” is an exhibition of artworks that rediscover these places and moments. The paintings were created without sentiment, but instead with the excitement and wonder of a child. Familiar scenes emerge as alien landscapes and the figures that appear in these scenes become solitary explorers, ephemeral beings immersed in the enduring surroundings.