Fiona Halse: October 2017

Fiona Halse Solo Exhibition at West End Art Space

Allegory of Spring : Fiona Halse

1 November – 26 November 2017

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. Aristotle – Poetics

Fiona Halse’s first solo exhibition at West End Art Space will showcase a new large abstract painting titled Primavera and smaller collages created in Berlin in 2016. This large painting expands through Tachist marks and textures that move in a linear framework and is contained through white passages of space on the canvas in what Klee refers to as ‘Endotopic’ and ‘Exotopic’ fluidity. Primavera is installed in a small exhibition space. Accompanying Primavera is a series of small collages that highlights not only the difference in scale, but the fertile ground of ideas that was generated during two residencies in Berlin. The works connect as a pod in the space and displays Halse’s need to find structure and feeling through praxis and affective composition.

This exhibition could be considered allegoric on many levels. Forms that are assembled through formal principles and aim to capture visceral feeling can be connected to the concept of allegory, or applied metaphor. In Abstraction, allegory can be communicated through various painterly and pictorial elements and principles with symbolic and hidden meaning. There was a burst of energy in the studio for Halse after the two Berlin residencies which resulted in the creation of Primavera. This burst of energy could be considered as a moment that Heidegger describes as ‘Poiesis’ and aligns with the ‘bringing forth’ process whilst creating an art work. Halse is interested in understanding how drawing and formal principles can be allegorical, metaphoric and poetic and how this can transcribe the unconscious and subconscious. Allegory in its broadest definition can be linked to Abstraction in terms of its spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms.

Halse’s work directly relates to the human figure and forms that convey internal feelings. The Allegory of Spring exhibition relates to personal feelings of elation, freedom and discovery.

Video of exhibition