Eleanor Bartlett - 'Opening'

Beam, Nottingham
Preview: Friday 27 October, 6-9pm  

Tar is a thick, very dark brown sticky substance that has the appearance of being entirely black. Derived from wood, coal, petroleum or peat, tar can be naturally occurring or excreted as a raw substance. Tar has been made for thousands of years on open fires, in traditional kilns, dug out of the ground and more recently through industrial processes.  

For over 600 years tar has been used as a wood preservative, a water repellent coating on boats and ships, and is thought to have been used over 200,000 years ago by Neanderthals as a rudimentary adhesive to create tools. Its most common use today is in the waterproofing of roofs and the construction of roads.  

The viscous quality of tar is perhaps unlike any other substance. Thick and malleable, it is a material that lends itself to practical applications and is not the obvious choice of material for an artist, yet it is one of the mediums of choice for Eleanor Bartlett. 

A conventional artist’s paint – such as acrylic or oil – is designed for delicate manipulation, empowering the artist to build images and transfer their personal vision onto canvas. Tar strongly resists this level of manipulation and despite the intentions of the artist, the medium will chart its own course on the canvas. Tar is difficult to work with, it will not be told what to do. For Bartlett, the process of working with tar is a direct negotiation with the material. The textures, the splatters and the resolution of the paintings are a series of manipulated compromises resulting from a process of control and chance which makes each impossible to repeat. They are a snapshot of the moment in time in which the artist created the work, and the 300 million years of evolution that created the raw materials. 

At first glance the surface of these works are highly reductive, but with full attention, reveal extraordinary complexity. They could be the terrain of a planet viewed from a telescope or the complex surface of a piece of matter seen under a microscope. The perception of a macro image and a micro image are captured simultaneously. These works resist interpretation, they cannot be simply and conveniently explained away. They do not follow in the footsteps of previous artists and they are not inspired by a single observation or experience. 

As the artist manipulates the tar on the surface of the canvas, Bartlett wrestles with the mystery of form and enters a space on the edge of perception, a personal process of  ‘opening’ beyond the material of the work. This subliminal space occupied during the process of making, is a transcended space dislocated from time, where the relationship between the artist and the material is equal – making each work the result of a collaboration between artist and medium. When the viewer looks at the work it creates a shift at the subconscious level and we become more aware of the emotional value of form and the ineffable nature of consciousness.

“We are all a collection of shivering electrons, as is everything, held together by an  unknowable force. We could dissolve at any moment. We all exist within the void.”
– Eleanor Bartlett