Des Helmore: Being There. Where?

New paintings by Des Helmore.

Preview: Wednesday 23rd November 5.30 – 7.30pm
Exhibition runs 24 November – 23 December 2011.

It is a simple fact that the computer has significantly changed the way we view our world.

The iTunes page describes the app for Google Earth as holding “the world in the palm of your hand... you can fly to far corners of the planet”; and all without leaving the comfort of your home. Do we in fact have a greater sense of the world? This is not the same as being there; but then reading a book has never been the same as being there.

Des Helmore has always been fascinated with the environs around him, be it a rural or city landscape. He reduces details and brings the world around us into the abstract, yet with recognisable elements. It is often the seemingly incidental features, which provide attraction for Helmore and act as signifiers of the type of site being depicted.

To explore via Google Earth and Google Maps we journey between pixilated, somewhat fuzzy views as we zoom between locations and focus in. The surprise is what objects come to view during the process, and this is what intrigues Helmore.

With Helmore though we explore a beautifully painted surface and marvel at his handling of the paint. Dick Frizzell in his latest book Its all about the Image sums it up with his account, “He crept up on all of us, after a gap of 30 or so years, figuring it out best, lost in science and the world of entomological analysis and recording. Honing the skills of observation and patient description.”

Helmore’s new suite of works Being there, where? will delight both those familiar and unfamiliar with his work, as he parles with Google Earth.

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