Thalia Robertson

The Third Element

June 6th – 28th, 2025

The works comprising the exhibition The Third Element focus on process and include preliminary sketches, exploratory paintings and works as an end result of experimentation with form, colour, tone, and composition.

Oscillating between abstract form and known indicators, images suggest letters or numerals in the series of works titled Alphabet. An Iteration or set formula alludes to an organised and systemised language. Although motifs are ambiguous in origin the works speak about the human desire to communicate experiences through symbols.

The qualities of oil paint are treated as material application in addition to being employed in service of the pictorial. Compositions are pushed beyond 2 dimensions treating wooden painting grounds as sculptural objects as paint covers all exterior surface areas. The viewer’s gaze is encouraged to move around the painted surfaces in a dynamic way. Painterly technique imitates movement and depth, creating space and taking the viewer deeper into the image which resists flattening out into surface pattern making.

Diptych, 1, 2, 3, and 4 employ the Rorschach test design as a visual strategy to convey the notion of transcendence, the double image being uncanny and depersonalised, further illustrating the alien like nature of arbitrary forms of language that they can sometimes appear to be. A number of preliminary sketches are included to show the decision-making process of balancing tone, colour etc. from one work to the next. Bright, deep colours are however muted and painting grounds are hand made from wood with obvious imperfections. The artist has fully immersed herself in all aspects of making with these works.