Interiors

Interior (My Bedroom)

Interiors

For the exhibition Other People’s Parties at Quiet Dog Gallery, I created a series of three self-portraits. Each is reverse-painted in acrylic on Perspex—two measuring 300 × 210 mm, and the third slightly larger at 300 × 400 mm.

All three works share the same opening word in their titles: Interior.

Each piece began with a collage made from torn-up magazines. These early compositions reflected my return home to Ōtautahi, Christchurch, after fifteen years living in Wakatū, Nelson. That move brought a new focus: the idea of home—and the spaces within it. How we shape interiors, and how those interiors shape us, became central to my work.

Reverse painting is a process of working backwards. Each layer is applied in reverse order to the back of the surface. Once the painting is complete, the image is sealed and fixed in place. I can’t return to it, and that inability to return became a vital part of the process.

What is an interior?

I recently reread The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir. First published in 1949, I first encountered it at art school. By then I was a mature student and couldn’t believe I’d waited so long. The copy I own now is an ex-library book that was being given away. Don’t you love the way books find you?

In her chapter on “The Married Woman,” de Beauvoir references Gaston Bachelard’s idea of home as “a kind of counter-universe or universe in opposition.” She writes:

“Reality is concentrated inside the house, while outer space seems to collapse.”

That image stayed with me. The idea of the interior as a complete world, while the outside dissolves, made me reflect on how much of my recent work—consciously or not—has focused on that inner world: the everyday spaces where memory and imagination meet.

The process of painting in reverse required me to work differently—to commit to each decision without retreat. The idea of the interior—of a house, a body, a painting—continues to guide the work I’m making now.

Exhibition Details

Other People’s Parties is on view at Quiet Dog Gallery, Wakatū Nelson, until 5 July. You can visit the gallery in person or explore their website for more information.

Latest News

I’m also pleased to share that one of the Interior works has been sold.