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Lorna Robertson: thoughts, meals, days

 Four stars

Bright colours only appears to be the credo of Glasgow based artist Lorna Robertson in her exhibition of new paintings. These are possessed with a vintage air, both in the figures of women who occupy them like they might have perambulated out of a Katherine Mansfield short story, and in the sense of psycho-analysis induced free associations that seem to spirit from their minds beyond their blank mannequin’s visages.

 

Lined up like show room dummies in ice cream coloured pink and lemon apparel, these silent women appear to have taken a wrong turn while lost in their own dreamings, finding themselves among some Pepperland foliage, out of which their minds rush with images both pastoral and domestic.

 

In ‘Dumb’, Robertson’s women could be a display in a milliner’s window. ‘We are the robots’ sees them perusing vases of flowers like judges at a fete. In ‘Words murmured’ they share swishy conspiracies. Elsewhere, they are all but hidden by barricades of busy, all angles abstractions, kept in their place as thoughts fly, blooming into view depending on their mood.‘thoughts, meals, days’ is an animated feature waiting to happen. Then again, perhaps Robertson’s inscrutable characters prefer the stillness, hiding in plain sight while their minds race onwards. 

 

Ingleby Gallery until 17 September, Tue-Sat,11am-5pm


The List, August 2022

 

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