Model

Born in Johannesburg and based in London, Selma Parlour explores the illusory surface of painting through infinitely careful and subtle means. Executed in 2010, Model exemplifies her approach, presenting a doubled cluster of tessellated rectangles in both large and small formats. Parlour removes the oil binder from her paint so that it becomes parched like chalk pastel. No stroke of the artist’s brush is visible: so meticulous is her technique that the painting assumes the perfect flatness of a print. At the same time, the architectural, window-like rectangular shapes generate an undeniable illusion of depth, and implicitly recall the fictive spaces of stage and picture frame. Even as Parlour wrongfoots us with her work’s flawless surface, these glowing panels of colour remind us of painting’s function as a window onto another world.
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