Ilsa Brittain

Out of Reach

Jackson's Painting Prize 2023
Acrylic
Canvas
152 x 122 cm

“We all have our own ideas of how things are. I imagine everything is linked – life, thought, culture – through a continuous process of fragmentation and realignment. I am intrigued that we can change our opinion on something simply by changing our perception of it, that we can hold opposing ideas, happily unaware of the inconsistency or outright contradictions. These are the things I am motivated to paint about.

Paint has the ability to shift between a tangible physical substance as well as a vehicle for illusion. The two aspects sit happily with each other when one is given clear prominence over the other – abstract textures or painterly illusion. As they come closer to equal consideration, however, they risk annihilating each other – the texture undoes the work of the illusion, or the illusion undoes the abstract work of the texture. I explore and push these possibilities of paint.”