Elizabeth Deull

Artist's Statement

A cast of mythical characters is lost somewhere between earth and heaven, reality and dreamland. Here, all is saturated with the candied nostalgia of distorted romanticized memories, images of strange enchanted forests and magical beanstalks climbing into a surreal neon night sky. The landscape of this space resembles a distorted reflection of our own world, with a tweaked interpretation of gravity, scale, light and palette. The paintings of Peter Doig and Leslie Lerner make the opportunity, both formally and psychologically, for this cosmological investigation of the awkward and the fantastical, while the characters caught within this space call to mind the Gilles figure of Jean-Antoine Watteau. Evoking a sense of displacement, disconnection and longing, they gaze beyond the frame in confusion and frustration with the harsh gap between their worlds, the palpable and surreal chasm that lies between the supernatural and natural realms.