Review: Resistant at Form Studio & Gallery with Patsy Payne and Nicci Haynes

This is an impressive exhibition showcasing the considerable talents of Patsy Payne and Nicci Haynes (no relation to the reviewer). Both are essentially printmakers and understand the expressive potential of the graphic mark, an understanding powerfully manifested in Resistant.

In Speech act (1) to (5), a series of large screenprints Haynes depicts a face (her own) in a range of expressive poses. The faces are at the front of the pictorial surface, pushed against the space of the viewer but not able to extend into that space. Each image is taken from the artist's photocopying of her face and so the barrier of the glass of that machine becomes integral to her conceptual and aesthetic aims. Eyes remain closed or covered in splashes of black. Mouths are open. These are images of concentration. While the finished images incorporate the artist's face they are not necessarily self-portraits. They are concerned with self-disclosure and with the limitations and frustrations of communicating linguistically about one's inner self to others. These intense and emotive images are dramatically appended with black, gestural marks and dribbles, thematically symbolic and aesthetically bold.

Haynes has wonderful control of her medium and of the impact of the paper on which the image is printed. The placement of each image realises the expressive potential of the paper marking it as not just white background but an integral partner in the total aesthetic and conceptual resolution.

The same pictorial strategies are used in the smaller works of Speech acts (1 – 12). Their placement in a single block reinforces the soundless vocalisations of the larger pieces and imparts a feeling of witness to the struggle for verbal communication the artist is pictorialising. Two short videos are eloquent continuations of the thematic concerns of the works above. Haynes reveals her astute understanding of the power of limitation in her use of black and white. In Word strings the articulate play of black against blacks, greys and white is especially effective. The artist's work is powerfully evocative of her theme, medium and concept.

Patsy Payne shows intaglio and chine collé prints, rust prints and three laser-cut corten steel works. Her works are concerned with the body captured in the transitional space between stasis and kinesis. This is a space that allows for the exploration of multiple possibilities and subsequent visualisations of these. The relationships of the body to its world are a rich and rewarding library. Her world is not proscribed by external physical environments but encompasses the body's experiential relationships with places, objects and people. The possibilities expressed visually are possibilities for change.

In the intaglio prints Payne's consummate technical prowess is beautifully exemplified. Process is not denied but is lauded as an essential component for the efficacious portrayal of image and meaning. In Challenge 1 the central red figure is  presented as a transparent veil of red in human form. The background black dots are subsumed into the veil and take on its red hues. The twisting ethereal figure moves counter to the direction of the head. To the left of the red figure and partly obscured by it is an equivalent black figure. It may be a shadow or another entity but it is in visual dialogue with the red figure. The space between the two forms is sufficient to establish a separation but simultaneously suggests formal interaction. The black acts as a fulcrum for the spiralling twist of the red figure. The black's more solid grounding visually relates it to the background. The transparency of the red figure against the combination of the black figure, the black dots and other areas of black across the picture plane imparts a sense of delicate deliberate movement in this elusive and captivating image. The presence of the dots acts as a continuum of motion against which the figures act out their dance, caught in suspended motion that speaks of the fleeting nature of time and of the transitory character of existence.

The three corten steel reliefs Resist 1, 2 and 3 are large (200cm high) and a powerful presence in the gallery space. Each is a dynamic combination of steel lines and negative spaces configured into the shape of a human body assertively proclaiming its identity. The figure is that seen in the two-dimensional prints and highlights the way Payne uses a singular form in multiple poses to the maximum visual effect. The "negative spaces" determine the vital representation of the movement of a body in space. They are kinetic notations surrounding and cutting through the body while imposing a forceful vigour into the total composition. exhibition.

The combined works of both artists make this as a visually rich, aesthetically exciting and intellectually stimulating exhibition.