Jess Allen’s first solo exhibition with Unit considers space, time and the inevitable transformation of present into past. This Is Now captures a series of fleeting moments in which shadows and figures overlap to represent the ephemeral and indistinct. The exhibition presents a series of paintings in which details are kept to a minimum. These are not portraits but are suggestions of presence, representative of feelings and moods. As vehicles to transmit her musings on time, Allen’s paintings become methods to “extend” the current moment for both artist and viewer. As such, This Is Now explores the ways in which imagery can trigger memories both specific and universal, rendering past as present.
The exhibition presents a series of paintings that are based on real moments from the artist’s life but are nonetheless universal in their connection to the everyday. At first, Allen uses photography to arrest these moments of “nowness”, capturing shadows on walls or furniture as sunlight pools in her sitting room. She then transforms these photographs into paintings. For the first time in over a year, Allen incorporates solid figures into her artworks alongside shadows. Figures and shadows alike are often based on Allen herself and her own family members. Subconsciously inspired by the artist’s childhood visits to the Tate, the exhibition’s title artwork, this is now, reminds viewers of David Hockney’s double portrait, Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy. Allen’s painting presents a self-portrait alongside a portrait of her husband and their cat, Simba. Set in their sitting room, it is an everyday domestic scene in which both figures exist together while maintaining their own inner lives. A previous artwork from Allen’s career is reproduced on the wall behind her, charting the journey of her own artistic development. The artist is depicted standing while her husband sits in a relaxed position, echoing the changing roles in their marriage as Allen’s career trajectory is reflected in her more dominant position.
In paintings such as the passing of time, autobiography becomes a key theme. Sunlight through a window creates a shadow on a female figure relaxing on a sofa. Modelled on Allen herself, the figure takes time out to read and be in her own company. A series of artworks hangs on the wall behind her, recreations of paintings that Allen conceived six years ago. The open book with pages of empty words symbolises openness and also a story that has yet to be told. The painting tells its own story of time, of the literal passing of time, but also of how life can change over time. Shadows and figures connect in images like I even dream about you in which a standing silhouette falls over a sleeping woman, evoking her consciousness, dreams and memories. Equally, paintings appear within paintings to represent times gone by. In I remember everything, a recreation of a smaller artwork, the reunion, hangs on a wall next to a standing figure. The small painting is perhaps a visualisation of a past life or a fantasy. These paintings do not only represent a slippage between present and past, but they also unite the general and the specific as Allen uses her own life to create universal stories.
Ultimately, This Is Now explores the ways in which imagery can conjure the past. It is the ordinariness of Allen’s subject matter that is simultaneously able to speak to viewers and convey a sense of the self. These paintings suggest the ways in which we are shaped by our past as all indiscriminate moments coalesce to create our “now”. Using indistinct and nonspecific shadows, figures and settings, Allen suggests something broader that connects to our everyday psychology. Viewers are able to project their own experiences onto these paintings, making each artwork active rather than static. In This Is Now, the current moment does not slip so readily into the past but becomes present again through its very visualisation.
