Jessie Rawcliffe’s figurative works are immediately alluring. The painstaking brush work, the flat blocks of colour that focus the finer detail, and the tight photographic cropping are all recurring effects that combine to explore both the medium of painting, as well as the sense of the ephemeral, the subjects in a state of flux. Figures are coloured with gestures, poses and expressions that serve as tools for communication, notably challenging the submissive female figure historically located in portraiture, confronting the viewer’s intrusive presence. Close the Door When You Go, Rawcliffe’s first solo show, continues the exploration of these themes, the title taking on a passive or aggressive instruction dependent on inflection, either way imploring respite from the outside world.
Oh, and then there are Jessie’s skulls, which come in all sorts of apparitions, including the fruity, revealing the underlying mortality of all life. The sticker versions that find their way onto the streets are definitely some of our favourite slaps going. They may not form part of Close the Door When You Go, but we couldn’t not bring them up!
We can’t wait to see this show!
Close the Door When You Go opens on Friday November 11, from 5:30pm, and will run simultaneously with Tyne Gordon’s show Visitor in CoCA’s Ground Floor Gallery.
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