My work investigates the parallels between the action of painting and lived duration in order to reassign the boundaries of time as a construct. 
As part of an explorative body of work which investigates the potential of a non-linear timeline, Blue Is A Magic Number highlights a more playful and absurd side of my practice. 
My paintings seek to deconstruct notions of time which we accept without question. Why do we measure time in a quantitative fashion? Through altering the phrase 'Three is a magic number', to introduce a qualitative aspect (blue), I invite the viewer to consider my alternative perception of time, where time can be visual or physical. Replace 'three' in a sequence, a timeline, or a clock, with blue, and suddenly these constructs of time are nonsensical. 
A viewer singles out blue elements within this painting - they construct an image of 'blue' which replaces a linear aspect of their perception of time to create their own version of my visual timeline. They then begin to isolate other colours, considering the interrelationships between them. They are able to map out the sequence of time held within this painting.


Blue Is A Magic Number

I am wearing the concept of time (2020, acrylic on canvas, sewn into an outfit)

Once you forget everything about conventional time, and reassign its boundary to a physical form, you can begin to create work which verges on the absurd. With a physical form for time through paint, i have been able to steal, eat, and wear time. Much of this piece is about performance - I have worn this multiple times in public. When complimented, all I say, is that I am wearing the concept of time.

I am wearing the concept of time

2021,
The figurative forms of this painting are created from previous paintings (units of time in my visual timeline). They stand dispersed within my painting, camouflaging themselves within the layers of painted time. Moulded to the form of my body, the figures are indicative of my past presence. Not only are they representative of my past, brought together to stretch and add depth to the duration of this painting, they lack the consciousness that prevents experience of the present. I am fascinated by the fact that we never truly experience the present due to the delay in our internal processing of events, and the figures’ inanimacy allows them to exist in the past and the present simultaneously - they are painted with time, moulded from the past, but experience the present. The figures are elevated to a level of superiority over the viewer; The figures can experience something that we cannot, highlighting the limitations of our understanding.

The viewer is able to step into the painting, essentially transporting them to an alternative timeline or a moment in the past. The necessity of deciphering the relationships between each element of the painting and distinguishing the forms from each other holds the viewers gaze for longer than a two-dimensional painting, allowing an experience of duration. The viewer becomes part of the work.


Spatialized Time Dimension

‘Physical Time’: Durational painting installation consisting of a large wall-hung painting and two freestanding works on voile. The artist and sewn figure become part of these paintings. The space is intended to be read as a whole. 

I have no interest in conventional time. The time I have created exists beyond its own definition. 

Walking into ‘Physical Time’ exposes you to a structure of thought based on my alternative perception of duration. My work investigates the parallels between the action of painting and lived duration in order to reassign the boundaries of time as a construct. All I ask, is that you forget everything you know about time, and become vulnerable to the intense presence of its new physical form. 

I have surrendered the assertion I had over my process, choosing instead to champion the inherent qualities of paint, and allow the medium a level of control over my actions. Time and paint have become parasitic, using my physical presence to develop a new form. The paintings consequently exist with a new level of animateness. My actions as the painter and performer animate the conscious-less elements within this space, and the paintings control over me neutralises my own consciousness. Furthered by the kinetic elements of multiple shadows, the viewer too becomes comparatively inanimate, merging into the installation. As they become physically immersed, the viewer internally isolates themselves, distinguishing their shadow from those of the figures to become self-aware. Only then can they consider their own relationship with time.


Physical Time

Looking Back Through Time, Acrylic and found objects on canvas, 2020

'Looking Back Through Time' is the culmination of a series of 'date paintings', where each work is used as a tool for documenting, and remembering a certain place, date and time. To assign a date to each piece means that they can be curated in a way that manipulates the timeline. In this instance, the viewer is able to look through the work (the sculptural freestanding work has a traffic cone through it!), which is aligned so that the past work can be seen, essentially looking backwards through time.

Looking Back Through Time

Duration III, Oil and Acrylic on Canvas, 2021

My work stems from a fascination with time. I seek to deconstruct our conventional perception of duration. This work results from the physical process of reducing a temporal relation to a corporeal entity. The marks on the canvas behave similarly to the constant renewal of the present – the past continually influences the present and, correspondingly, what has already been painted determines new marks. The interrelationships between new and pre-existing brushstrokes also align with how the present distorts, changes or hides the past. The resulting visual image is my alternative timeline. I ahve created a new version of duration.

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Laura Holmes