"Smoke screen is a military term in which the literal use of smoke creates a visual barrier obscuring physical information. While in the context of painting, smoke screen refers to an obscuring surface layer, hiding previous histories of brush movements.
The works in my exhibition Smoke Screen play with surface and space through layering large gestural movements in transparent or opaque paint. There is a duality in these works. Firstly, a painting’s ability to act as a physically textural surface existing in our world, and secondly its potential to act as a veil or portal to another. The works are built up to a certain extent, so that a lot of painterly information is obscured in the end. These layers flatten space while also revealing thinly veiled apertures to hidden levels, creating an illusory sense of spaciousness and depth.
Revealing as much as they hide, these works reflect on our interactions with space, colour, gesture and movement through the traditional constraints of the rectangular frame. In doing so, they create liminal space and reflect upon the ever increasing uncertainty about our place in the world." Belem Lett 2020
