The Sid Motion gallery provides different approaches to the interpretation of inner introspection. The exhibition, titled Inner Landscapes, describes the story of how four artists approach the world from the point of view of their soul. This unique vision interests me in many ways. It unveils both the conscious and unconscious view of a person, blending their personalities, personal history, including their childhoods and experiences, and any sensations which are hard to define: sensibility, intuition, intellect, and belief. All the artworks presented in the gallery share a common ground: they all allow the viewer to journey within another person’s busy interior life.

The works are curated shrewdly, in a disorderly manner, yet still they visually create a contrast and entice the curiosity. Some of the prints are hung in pairs, while others are meant to be examined next to each other, one after the other. The space is small, which reinforces a ubiquitous sense of intimacy. Secrets being shared here, as the viewer is invited to enter the minuscule particles of each artist’s soul. Mick Finch, Minnie Weisz, Dafna Talmor, and Ben Nason’s disparate works are united by the notion of depth in the materialisation of their inner landscapes.

Through collages and appropriation, Talmor and Finch respectively rearrange scenes by adding outside elements such as medium format colour negatives or images found from an 8 volume series of encyclopaedia published by Waverly in the late 1950’s. The renderings from Finch’s collages are aesthetically refreshing whilst opposing a reflection on past events and technology, using black and white images and colours of exotic flowers. Talmor holds ourselves captive, staring at the landscapes she reinterprets using negatives and then blending their edges. In her case, the final image appears partitioned, yet I see it as a whole and am able to read the poetry in the different layers that have been intentionally added to the landscapes. These are minor but visible alterations which translate Talmor’s desire to live in her multi-fold inner world in the form of layers.

In the mix of the artworks in the gallery, we encounter Weisz’s pictures, in which we find the understated presence of sensuality in locations which appear to be derelict spaces. Objects have been placed sporadically throughout the frame, remnant of the loss of childhood and painful memories. Nostalgia is spread at the centre of the canvases, as if the artist had wanted to capture cherished souvenirs with the intention of never walking away from them. The work of Nason strikes in its visual appearance, compared to the other works in the gallery. It nevertheless conceptualizes the same idea, which is to describe our inner self in a world where images are key. Nason’s prints question where we stand, amongst others, and within ourselves. Do we truly know where we are? An edge, which I thought was located at the corner of a ceiling, can be after thinking about it, situated upside down on the ground. In fact, all the images depicted by Nason create questions in regards to their presence in space.

Far from trying to guess what the meaning of most of these pieces could be, the intent, in my opinion, is to dive into the process and the final images. Using our own individual perceptions, we take refuge in these images to draw our inner landscapes, comprised of our own shapes and colours. The result won’t just be printed or displayed in a gallery, just the thought of hanging to it for one moment makes the experience of stepping in the Sid Motion gallery enriching and worth the exploration.

Inner Landscapes : Mick Finch, Minnie Weisz, Dafna Talmor and Ben Nason at Sid Motion (25 April – 2 June 2017)