Above: Keely Clarke, Scrutinising Colour, 2024. CMY screenprint. 50 x 50 cm. Courtesy: The Artist
We are often consciously connected to past memories through a familiar smell, sound or song, but Keely Clarke’s Scrutinising Colour considers that colour can also trigger memory association. Her layered bitmap of CMYK colour is suggestive of analogue newsprint, yet the non-objective subject does not reveal events, people and places. Instead, its halftone stippling effect suggests a hypnotic field of light and vibrating energy, reminding us that memory is often accompanied by intangible feelings and yearnings that evoke the impossible desire to transcend time and place.
CASSANDRA HARD LAWRIE
CURATOR & VISUAL ARTS COORDINATOR, ART SPACE ON THE CONCOURSE (WILLOUGHBY CITY COUNCIL)
The ‘bitmapped design’ that Clarke uses in her work offers a pixellated quality that evokes nostalgia to the nascent digital era but is achieved through an analogue screenprinting process which creates an interesting contrast. The hazy quality achieved through this technique creates an ambiguity to the image and a macro focus, which allows the viewer to import their own ideas of what the subject matter may be.
LUKE POTKIN
FAIR DIRECTOR, THE OTHER ART FAIR
Bold and deeply moving, Clarke’s artwork offers a compelling exploration of the intricate relationship between colour and memory. Layers of vivid colour, rainbowesque and neon in nature, draw our attention and captivate the eye seeking to engage our subjective recollection. Colour flows freely across the entire picture plane, moving in rhythm, mimicking our thoughts as they sway from one to the other.
GRACE ALTY
FINE ARTS SPECIALIST AT INTERNATIONAL ART CENTRE, AUCKLAND