间隔或间距或中间的空间

Helen Redmond,Fountainhead,2020, oil on canvas, 120 x 170cmEvery space has its own energy. Spaces can be energising, they can be challenging, they can be healing. Visual artistHelen Redmondhas spent decades exploring the immersive qualities of 3D space in her paintings, drawing upon an interplay of light and shadows in creating a highly immersive—even meditative—viewing experience. Her upcoming collaborative exhibition with textile designerBarbara RogerstitledThe Space Betweentransforms Paddington’s Barometer Gallery into a site for deep reflection on the boundaries between real and imaginary spaces, and how we perceive them.Helen Redmond,Aquarii #7,2020, oil on canvas, 100 x 80cmA subliminal exploration of architectural structure is the unifying framework forThe Space Between. Helen’s paintings and Barbara’s textile wall hangings both express the space-time nexus through the meticulous use of line, colour and geometric shape. After first meeting in 2015, the artists have continued to explore a dialogue between their work based on the temporal nature of time and its physical and emotional resonance on different surfaces and spaces. “Barbara’s work is reductive in that she takes away elements from the existing fabric composition, while I slowly add in layers. It’s all about time and being sensitive to colour and spaces,” says Helen.Helen Redmond,Architeken #1, 2019, oil on canvas, 70 x 100cmInspired by the formal and thematic methodologies of Modernist architects such as Luis Barragan and Tadao, Helen’s creative practice explores the response of space to light. Employing oil paint on canvas with layers of translucent glazes, her compositions embed time and process into every shape and shadow. Helen’s paintings seek to elicit the kind of emotional response we experience when immersed in a physical 3D space, inviting the viewer to dwell in the possibilities of light and time as they acknowledge the existence of the present moment.Helen Redmond,Oculus,2020,oil on canvas 100 x 70cm“When life is so busy and you’re trying to do so many things at once, you haven’t got time to go to a yoga or meditation class, it’s hard to find that place of stillness. For me, painting is about finding a space where I can sit with something,” Helen shares. “As I was learning to paint a lot of people would come to me and say things like: ‘I just have to come and sit in front of your painting for a while because I need to still down’.”Helen Redmond,Yumebutai (TerraCoctal),2020, oil on canvas, 80 x 100cmThe Space Betweenfeatures nine of Helen’s selected paintings, includingOculus(2020) andFountainhead(2020). These hang with austere elegance in conjunction with Barbara’s azoic-dyed silk works.Oculusexemplifies Helen’s exploration of ‘the void’, an earthy, brooding spectrum of greens rendering shadows that plumb the depths of being.Fountainheadis stoic and monumental, the strength of stone surfaces filling the viewer with silent awe. Beneath Helen’s measured brushstrokes and Barbara’s intricately composed silks, there is an emotive sublayer to this exhibition. The body of work is as much a window into both artists’ personal journeys, as it is to the light and darkness in the collective human psyche.Barbara Rogers,Inhabit(detail), 2019, silk/cotton, silk organza, de-coloured, azoic dyes, silk thread, 205x 47cmIn the context of Helen’s practice, the term ‘modern’ is perhaps best demonstrated in her use of the materials, resources and conceptual constructs that become available. While her interplay of stark geometry and tonal variation are modern in a formal sense, she never strives to be labelled as such. Rather, her artistic identity has evolved through decades of styling, photographing and observing different spaces in documenting the work of leading global artists, architects and designers.Helen Redmond,Architeken #3,2019, oil on canvas, 70 x 100 cm“I had to kind of grab on to things that were already inside me, or things I was interested in, and use that as my strength in developing my artistic identity. I had to not apologise for starting as an artist in my 50s. I realised this path was a continuum of all my work and interests, so really I have been doing this all my life,” she says.Barbara Rogers,Multi Stripes #2(detail), 2011, silk organza, shibori, de-coloured, azoic dyes, 168 x 62cmHelen’s innate visual and spatial awareness has shaped her career as an interior stylist, editor and photographer in the international media landscape, with painting always being a side hobby. Beyond words and images on a page, paint soon became the main medium Helen used to express this fourth dimension of the spatial experiences she was having with her styling and writing. She has continually attended art schools and courses for the last 20 years, no matter which city she has lived and worked in. Her creative process always starts from considering spaces that move her, an emotional impulse transmitted to the viewer’s experience of her work.“When someone comes and just stands in front of the work and tells me what they’re thinking and feeling, that’s what it’s all about for me. If they buy a painting because it makes them feel something, then that’s a successful painting to me. That’s where the magic is,” she says.Barbara Rogers,Transitions(detail), 2021, shot silk satin, silk organza, de-coloured, 236 x 55cmIf the pace of life feels overwhelming, and you can’t physically escape to your sanctuary, Helen Redmond and Barbara Rogers offer solace in their meditative reflections on the natural and built environments we inhabit every day. After all, light and space are the ultimate truths, and perhaps the only reminder we need to feel the sublime in the local, and the permanent in the present moment.The Space Betweenis now showing at Barometer Gallery until April 25,barometer.net.au