Encapsulation and preservation are the keys to understanding Jelena Telecki’s expressive oil paintings featured in her latest series, ‘Roland’s Mother’, on exhibition at Sydney’s Gallery 9. The nostalgic body of work is self exploratory, as its source of inspiration, Roland Barthes’ Illuminations.
The paintings are sombre, dominated by grey tones and melancholy expressions, but the subject is, in itself, quietly optimistic. Telecki says that after reading Barthes in the course of her studies, she identified an affinity with regards to the relationship between images and painting, and her interest in photography and stills. “At this time I was trying to understand my attraction to images while questioning the relevance of the painting practice that originates from an image,” she says.
As Barthes searched for the ultimate encapsulating image of his mother, Telecki seeks such a way of representing her late father, that is, a distillation of his essential character, experiences and existence. In ‘Roland’s Mother’, she explores their shared life, reminisces and attempts to understand all that they have been through, as elusive as such a quest may be.
Shrouded in a blanket of darkness, the figure of Sitter (after Land & A. Sander) is illuminated only by the ghostly skin of her hands and legs. She is superseded by a luminous character in blue, the singular source of optimism in the image who looks out longingly, as if the artist herself, searching for truth.
Telecki displays the height of her painterly skill in the series, delicately and subtly manipulating the paint to imbue her figures with a soft realism that mirrors the delicacy of the subject. Such works as Gregor and Glembaj carry an almost dreamlike quality, a softness and ethereality that, when coupled with the sad reality of her cause, gives the series it’s emotive punch. The downcast figure of Glembaj is beautifully rendered; one of the few characters of Telecki’s to be given facial features. The motif of the faceless figure dominates the series, presumably an acknowledgement of this search for a definitive image and identity.
Born in Split, Croatia, Telecki lives and works in Sydney, obtaining a Bachelors of Visual Arts, followed by a Masters of Visual Arts from Sydney College of the Arts. ‘Roland’s Mother’ presents a stunningly poignant series of oil paintings, taking Telecki a step forward in her endeavour to understand imagery and its memorial significance, following her curiosity and in the footsteps of Barthes.
Gallery 9
Until 16 February, 2013
Sydney
Images:
Gregor, 2012, oil on canvas, 42 x 59.4cm
Glembaj, 2012, oil on canvas, 59.4 x 42cm
Courtesy the artist and Gallery 9, Sydney
