Words by Sean Irving in response to ‘Under The Cover Of A Cloud’ by Rhys John Kaye at - At The Above Gallery 2023
There’s a sense of unease – a resistance to resolution – underscoring the works that make up Rhys John Kaye’s latest body of work, Under the Cover of a Cloud. The pieces speak to the anticipation of an outcome – positive or negative – caught between action and result.
Signifiers of potential transformation – the butterflies, blank pages and bare canvasses – compete for space with shattered glass, barbed thorns and obscured faces, foreboding symbols of consequence that hint at a darker conclusion.
By choosing to depict the hand of the artist within many of these works, Rhys foregrounds the viewer in the spatial plane – inviting them into an uncertain world caught between growth and stagnation, pain and healing, past and future.
Collectively, the pieces pose a question we can’t answer with certainty; does the cloud we find ourselves under provide cool respite from the heat, or is it the first sign of an approaching storm?
Entering Paradise Through A Hatch. 2023 - Oil on linen
The Second Last Day Of Pompeii. 2023 - Oil on timber
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