Tracing Terrain Tracy Sweeney

An exhibition of works from 2005 - 2025.

‘It's intolerable to be stopped by a frame's edge’ Clifford Still

In order to build the layers of surface in my paintings I forget to be an artist. I abandon brushes & use carpenter’s tools; scrapers, chisels, grout & floor brushes. My mind dwells on concrete walls, metal & faded posters; the remnants of a party under a public bridge or a kid’s brazen scrawl on a public wall. As a consequence, the construction of each painting develops using destructive techniques. Surfaces are assembled layer by layer, then dismantled, creating planes of unintended colour & shape relationship. My technique renders the familiar outline into abstraction; a breakdown of forms. The quiet segments within some works allows the mind to rest & wander into the chaos of an adjacent texture. Each painting feels like it extends beyond the four sides of its frame. The viewer should be immersed in that possibility; the possibility of ‘reality’. It frustrates yet excites me to make pieces in this frenetic manner. Every accident enthrals me. My paintings have taken on their own abstract expressionistic language. Each piece must be brought to the brink of uselessness before I can pull it back to make it ‘work’. All rules are broken. This frustration, excitement & challenge are integral to each composition.

Tracy Sweeney