8 New Paintings - Armature for Water Divination - James Kerr

Exhibition essay - Jennings Kerr Gallery 2024

In Greek Mythology the Nymph known as Cyane was struck by Hades sceptre and transformed into a double spring of turquoise water. The ‘Naiad’ in these mythologies were the nymphs of flowing water, female spirits that were connected to different bodies of water. The transformation of Cyane and the nature of the Nymphs are relevant here in terms of medium but also in how Hollier approaches material and process. He is interested in questioning the state of material, changing it from one thing to another and the transfer of energy as a result. I recall a room made up of a bird house, a pattern painting and a BMX in perpetual motion, perched on top of a stool in a Duchampian centre stage. Its chromed frame glistening under the gallery fluorescent tubes with its padded bumper, remade in Linen and a gradient airbrushed on. Everything was crafted with careful consideration, his practice exploded out in many directions from ‘shaped painting’. The expansion an intentional second act to his earlier more cohesive shaped canvas shows. The logic became somewhat of a challenge to incorporate the everyday, to look out at the world as though everything could be a painting. I have been lucky to follow the work, to gain some insight through friendship and now fortunate to exhibit what I believe to be incredibly thoughtful and thought provoking painting. I always think about the time a painter is not painting in relation to the notion - that they are ‘always painting’. Looking, thinking, recording, writing, conversing and this down time then channeled into the mark. I think Hollier takes this to a new level in terms of the amount of preparatory work required before he can set brush to surface. He might be working his way through the grades of paper to reach a high polished chrome, or obsessively sizing a cardboard box, but what is common in all of his work is his level of care and attention given to material, his ability to craft it in a way that sets his painting apart from so many. It also pulls from the mundane, the moments that most of us glance and move on from. Hollier looks deeply into these experiences and they direct the work. It could be a discussion with his children or a household repair, it might be a road worker spray- painting or a leaf collected on a morning walk. Hollier is able to shift our perception of what a painting is through his ability to see everything as one. 



In the early stages of our representation of Hollier, we often discussed his kitchen renovation. He was tirelessly replacing cabinets, tiling splash back, fitting fixtures and repairing what need not be replaced. True to his nature this experience helped shape this show. Many of these shaped pieces sit on cedar, reclaimed from the removed kitchen cabinetry. Hollier describes it to be beautifully seasoned given the age of the cabinets. It sounds a little absurd but important in relation to the complexity of his substrates and the level of care that he goes to in creating stable supports for the plywood to sit on. The timbers are then sized equally front and back in order to allow for equal and balanced material states before the paper is then adhered to the timber. This also involves a meticulous technique and patient preparation before the final trimming of paper to the edge of the shaped timber. It might feel I am avoiding mentioning the actual painting however I have been. So much of this work occurs away from the brush so as that when it is picked up, Hollier can approach the surface intuitively and in reaction to it. These works and their processes operate in response to their edge but also as a result of flow from gravity, colour moving the way water wants it to. Paper and timber as an armature for water to distribute tone. 

Hollier has put the painters tape to the side, only used to mask his edges and opted for more fluid, soft and translucent renders. Watercolour glazes applied by brush across an edge of the formed shape. This way the composition and flow react to the geometries of theboard, dynamicpassagesinrelationshiptotheedge.Thesoftcoloursandtheirabsorptionintothepaper,acontrasttothehard edge. The colour runs down and through the fibre in a similar movement to the movement of water by osmosis in the leaf. I can’t help but connect these processes when Hollier discusses the forms and shapes being informed by leaves he has observed and collected. As the title suggests, water dowsing also comes to mind. The whittled timber fork and figure crossing a plane searching for water. Here the paintings are open and Hollier has allowed the incidental and chance in through the notion of tones being carried by the water, absorbed flows that move down with gravity and spread across the surface from what are very deliberate tracings of the geometry. We see the ghosting of a broad stroke in the top edge of ‘Dissolution of Cyane’, 2024. These top edges feel like the tipping point. Where Hollier puts that first mark down and lets the magical bleed and absorption take over. The work exists as a balance of meticulous control, application of skill, and a willingness to let go and allow for the transformation to occur.



Curves playing off each other, repetitive and varied like the leaves on a tree or fallen to the ground. Blowing down the street in the wind. Collected and observed in order trace and draw. Shapes starting to come into focus through careful consideration of edges and how the forms relate to one another. The painting ‘Chameleon Echo’, 2024 repeats the curve but with a variance in material. The paper is not found in this piece and the primed timber surface repels the water. Hollier described it as sitting on the surface and building up. Layers echoing each other but gradually building to a deep and dark space punctuated by the trace of pooling pigment, dried on the surface as opposed to absorbed by the paper. It also acts as a kind of counter to the light found in the show and for me activates the negative space so successfully through contrast. It brings to mind Hollier’s earlier ‘Table Paintings’ that played on layering positive and negative space through the removal and addition of forms over each other. The reference of ‘Chameleon’ is in relation to the shifting colour as the layers have been built up over the last couple of years. The ‘Echo’ referring to the Greek mountain nymph, the notion of the layering but I also feel the repeated form of the curve in this piece picks up the conversation with the other cuts and angles in the room. Perhaps a consideration of the notion of part and whole. The paintings in conversation with one another. 



With Hollier, the studio can move in a very subtle and sensitive way or leap forward aggressively. It almost feels he sets both paces intentionally to give the work tension. We were in touch about some pieces he was working on towards this show and he felt something needed to be tweaked. He was sitting and observing the painting, discussing the notion of further intervention but concerned with overworking it. The next day I received correspondence in the form of an image illustrating that Hollier had cut the painting in half. This a perfect indication of how Hollier approaches the studio. The final act of splitting the form down the middle brings it to life, as though it always had to be done. Controlled aggression in order to further contain as well as offset the soft and fluid. Another purposeful hard edge to balance the chance element of the water flowing from one point to another. I feel this room, like the other, will stay with me. The room where Hollier allowed water and chance to mingle and in doing so put forward his most cohesive series. 


James Kerr, 2024