Theoria

Linda Holloway’s latest paintings refuse to stay still. Huge grids of metallic and matte squares respond and react to light, appearing to shimmer and shift as you approach them.

Reminiscent of colour field paintings, her work creates visual environments that absorb us as we move closer, filling our whole field of vision with a gentle hum of tonal harmonies that Holloway likens to visual music. The dancing grids animate under light, morphing into tapestries, tiled mosaics, mathematical formations, or dusky city lights. Holloway’s paintings are lively even when seen in a dim light, when the flickering grids are at their most elusive.

Each square is painstakingly layered with three or four coats of paint, creating an unexpected warmth in compositions dominated by quiet greys. The metallic squares alternate rhythmically with matte surfaces that absorb light, such as the graphite squares and dense charcoal lines. The palette of each painting is tightly controlled, with some reminiscent of pearlescent oyster shells, and others imbued with shades of a cool, overcast ocean.

Light is not only an active participant in the viewing experience of Holloway’s work, but intrinsic to the making of these paintings. Holloway’s carefully orchestrated grids are the basis for starkly sketched forms that provide clues to mysterious objects. Sprawling charcoal lines describe the shadows of forms that were thrown onto the grids by chance in the studio: a wire chandelier, a stool, or parts of a plant stand. There is a sharp contrast between the meditative grids and the spontaneous graphite marks that capture a feeling of transience and chance: these are fleeting shadows rendered solid, a record of a passing moment. The sketched forms also hold some personal significance for Holloway as they trace connections to memory and family. A twisted wire chandelier was made by Holloway’s son, giving one of the paintings the anecdotal title Bruno Shadow.

This latest body of work has evolved from Holloway’s previous Anomie series, which explored a kind of social unravelling; diminutive figures seemed isolated within an infinite, ever-shifting landscape, lost in a strange sea of grids and objects. In this latest series, the relationship between space and form continues to be explored through the juxtaposed grids and shadow objects, creating a heightened tension across each composition.

Holloway’s paintings respond sensitively to the shifting environments in which they were made, but also create a shifting environment in and of themselves. As we approach the works our own shadows are cast onto them, and become incorporated with the paintings. Our presence becomes intrinsic to the formation of these works as we actively contribute to the sense of movement and transformation, and so each experience of them is unique.

The poignancy of Holloway’s paintings exists in the crucial space between repetition and difference. This notion encourages us to look not just at the shared commonality between forms, occurrences or events, but to notice and revel in the differences between seemingly repetitive phenomena. The subtle, transformative qualities of Holloway’s paintings encourages us to embrace this sense of difference, and enjoy moments of transience and experience.

Essay by Linda Yang