HELEN BERMINGHAM - ALWAYS, ALMOST

Central to Bermingham’s practice is the repetition of marks, images and brushstrokes from earlier paintings into each subsequent new one. Every time a mark is repeated it inevitably changes, much like it happens each time a memory is recalled. Variations in scale and speed of painting are only some of the factors that play a role and may affect the feeling and energy of the final result. The artist draws inspiration from the words of physicist Carlo Rovelli, who parallelises time with musical notes. In music, each note exists in acknowledgement of the previous note and anticipation of the future one. As the previous note is retained, thus the present is a constant retention of the past. Similarly, Bermingham is interested in how this idea could also apply to painting. By blurring the lines between past and future, each painting relates to each other and feeds back into the past work and the work to come. This idea expands to the physical studio, where Bermingham usually works on multiple pieces at once, thus allowing each work to influence, draw from and have a conversation with the other works.

The incidental mark making that occurs when painting is also an important part of the process as elements of newness or surprise enter the work. These unplanned marks find an association with the unconscious and take the work in a new direction both visually and emotionally. Paintings start from one position and end up somewhere unanticipated and new, but somewhere new that has a resonance with the artist. Allowing associative thought to play a role pushes the painting along and creates new ideas for further works. Unanticipated paint marks in combination with new ideas that stem from the initial layout and the different painting stages allows the creative process to evolve into a real conversation between the canvas and the artist and in this way possibilities shift and morph constantly.

Through this repetition of paint marks from painting to painting, Bermingham creates a kind of ‘genealogy’ of marks that allows connections to be unearthed and excavated from the work. Her paintings become a sort of world building (or ‘fictionscaping’) out of the artist’s own archive of marks that grows with each use. In this way, Bermingham sees painting as a repository of time and memory. As the work progresses, the lines between memory and fiction, past and present become blurred and make way for something new. The marks change and develop to be used again in future paintings thus constantly propelling the work forward while also looking back to the past.