Hidden In The Haze

Jen Orpin | Oil on Cradled Panel | 6 x 12 inches

“The structures I focus on, often constructed from concrete and metal, brutal in nature are familiar landmarks that straddle well-travelled motorways and roads.

The motorway bridge, often unchanged and built to last, offer sturdiness and a consistent presence that spans decades in frequently developed and changing environments. They may be accompanied by the addition of graffiti; protest slogans or nature and weeds might have taken hold only adding to this presence and giving these brutalist landmarks the enduring quality of a monument. By documenting and recording these structures using the language of painting, I aim to expand our perceptions and viewpoints and challenge how we look at these structures in our everyday landscapes and draw on the connections we make through our memories and belonging to these places.

The active human element is notably absent – cars and people are stripped away, leaving only the motorways, landmarks, and remanence of a human presence. The absence of human life accentuates these elements, shifting the focus to the intrinsic beauty of the pathways and their significance in our lives. This intentional removal invites viewers to contemplate the relationship between the landscape and their own experiences. The roads and bridges become metaphorical for the emotions tied to travel and change, allowing the audience to project their memories, aspirations, and reflections onto the environments depicted. Framed within the empty motorway, these depictions of bridges articulate their role as a transformative connector, symbolizing opportunity for change.

The visual representations of these landscapes in my paintings and the framed view from the car make up and form the basis of visceral memories and nostalgia, liminal spaces that occupy the landscape between the places and people that mean the most to us. The importance of these external landscapes is often mirrored by the internal dialogue of the driver and passenger with the confinements of the car at times offering an intimate confessional space. The mundanity of these everyday actions often belies the truth of deep routed emotions that come with these well-travelled routes and connections to these familiar places. In these paintings I aim to portray this feeling, emotionalism is a key element in the success of each one and as a viewer you are forced to look down the road as its sole traveller and undertake each journey as your own.” Jen

We do offer the Own Art Scheme to purchase artwork. At 0% APR, this is payable in equal instalments over 10 months. Please contact The Gallery for more information.