Rosie Greenhalgh

Artist statement

Part photograph, part painting, Rosie’s work shows glimpses of realities that slip in and out of focus and deceive the eye. Her work also makes reference to the powerful dialogue between nature, the city and the individual. Floating tower blocks seem sure to crumble at their foundations, symbolising the financial collapse and the fragmentation of our communities; and like an empty car park when all the cars have left, there is nothing but the felt absence of humanity; the white canvas seeks to re-enforce this sense of utter loneliness, vulnerability and isolation. The viewer is placed as an onlooker behind the trees or far away. We view this city from the other side, the city has quite literally become ‘the other’; once perceived as the answer to our dreams, a place of ambition, aspiration, longing and desire now there is nothing but uncertainty and insecurity. Splashes of florescent paint on the trees, symbolise this strange world where superficially, things seem unchanged, but something is very different, alien and unsettling. The trees dominate the foreground like a barrier holding us back preventing us from attaining the security and certainty we seek, which always lies just out of reach. The buildings are part photographic representation and partly painted. The camera captures a moment of reality, it may be true, it may be an illusion. Overlaying and intruding into these images is the paint and the hand of the artist, the hand of humanity, foresight and vision, and the hand that represents our needs and voices our vulnerability.