The Existence of Nothingness; an Artistic Psychic Analysis

The painful realisation that the object already contains the possibility of non-existence-a nothingness has been created’

Darian Leader

Heavily inspired by the writings of philosopher Julia Kristeva and psychoanalyst Darian Leader, The Nothingness Of Our Own Existence is a conceptual exploration of the human psyche, brilliantly led by British artist Clementine McGaw. McGaw’s immeasurable empathy and understanding of these subversive philosophical texts is communicated through textured, painterly brushstrokes depicting singular macabre figures. Much of the literature of Kristeva and Leader delves into the mental and emotional processing of melancholia and mourning, and the artist uses abstract portraiture to convey her emotional response to the writers works.

Crimson colored oil paint is smeared onto the cream canvas and blotted with black, brown and white brush strokes, creating a wildly staccato visual experience. Imagined limbs contort into puddles that morph into grim facial expressions and silhouettes bearing a rather tortured body language. McGaw’s use of dramatic images atop texturally rich canvases, adds a visceral quality to this illussory psychic exploration. Each portrait within the series is comparable to a surrealistic dimensión where mankind delicately sways in limbo between something existant and something vanished. McGaw regards this distinguished compilation of paintings as a selection of sacred human/non-human entities that relate flesh with its corresponding “nothingness”.

As affecting as it is arresting, The Nothingness Of Our Own Existence harkens the viewer to consider the constitution of his/her own emotional state in relation to its mercurial tendencies and intangibility. Is such a thoughtful and provocative layering of paint an effective médium to explore the potentiality of human existence? This is a theme that McGaw entrusts the viewer to analyze through his/her own pyschic connection with the portaits.

The Nothingness Of Our Own Existence is presently exhibited at the Home Gallery by Rossella Terzolo, in Milan, Italy, April 11 through May 12, 2016. The intimate and relaxed ambiance of the gallery generates a more personal, less formal interaction between the viewer and the artwork, while loosely establishing McGaw as the tacit intercessor between the two.

Constance Victory Small