Acrylic Mounted Panels
Works on Paper
“ Champion’s recent works on paper mark a new way of working for the artist, in which she is using her extensive research as the artwork, rather than to inform it. For years she has photographed her surroundings for in-depth research purposes. Now, these detailed photographs are spot lit in exciting, vibrant collages. Champion creates surreal compositions by contrasting found arrangements of materials, objects, and nature with swirls of vivid watercolour. Subconsciously pushing paint around, watercolour is her choice of medium for its unpredictability and for obtaining the desired effect of atmospheric fluid dynamics. Playing with scale, piles of bricks and tubing float in wavering washes of acid green, yellow and red.”
”Ordinarily, Champion works on long-term, large-scale public projects, so this alternative way of making has a sensuous immediacy. Her scientific titles offer insight into her research areas – for this set of works she drew inspiration from the subject, Carbon Sink. The related technical terms, which denote greenhouse gas emissions, mechanics, and deep time natural history events have a strange and subtle poetry to them.”
HALES GALLERY
IN FOCUS: RACHAEL CHAMPION | WORKS ON PAPER