Denise Green: Evanescence

The exhibition Denise Green: Evanescence focuses upon works created between 2005 and 2008 which explore motifs developed over time that are both personal and transient. Green’s works are built up through layers of meaning and association yet the imagery is simple and symbolic. Each work informs the next whilst the original inspiration is elusive, the feeling, its evanescence lingers and envelops the viewer.

The paintings in Evanescence, with their elusive shapes and vivid colours, evoke a mood which transcends their reality. Falling belongs to the Square Column Series from 2006 which was painted after the attack on the World Trade Center. In order to achieve this meditation upon loss, Green chose a minimal central motif of a stone brick from the site of Frauenkirche in Dresden, Germany which was destroyed during WWII. For a memorial to her mother who passed away in 2003, she has chosen a more personal motif of the cut rose. Inspired by the poetry of AK Ramanujan the rose motif is repeated and with each permutation of the motif the colour intensifies and the composition becomes more luminous.