William Monk

The enigmatic title of the exhibition offers a poetic play on words reflecting the multiple readings and interpretations of Monk’s complex mindscape paintings. Moving fluidly between ideas of reality and mirage, figuration and abstraction, Monk’s reinvention of painting lies in the physical presence of his works as object and the viewer’s experience within the space between them.

Comprising new large and small oil paintings, the exhibition is presented as an installation. Central to this is a suite of paintings titled Sea of Cloud, a Yellow Submarine-imbued zoetrope-like room that features three paintings depicting a montage of what could be interpreted as a cloud forming and dissipating over a swelling sea. Rather than a triptych with a central panel, Monk intends this group of paintings to be read as a repeating montage that could be viewed on loop: a cinematic influence, but also a musical one.

Each painting in the group is comprised of two adjoining panels, with the seam carefully placed at eye level so that the viewer will, as the artist says, ‘feel they’re in the water looking up to the sky, across to the horizon and below to the depths.’