12/01/13
Maia Spall: Shifting Shapes
and
Xavier’s Spires Spectacle
at Xavier White’s, Blackheath
8 December 2012 – 14 January 2013
Walking into Xavier White’s front room gallery space is like
walking into a spiritually uplifting, meditative sanctuary. In front of the
vast bay windows, looking out over the heath, is an undulating landscape,
draped in white, and bedecked with some sixty odd glass spires, lit up from
within against the dark night sky behind. The remaining three walls and
staircase are hung with Maia Spall’s rich and swirling purple, blue and magenta
canvases, evoking a sense of movement, both of the ocean and sky from which she
draws much of her inspiration, as well as of the spirit and soul. There is an
all-encompassing eurythmy to the works, which carries you away as much as does
the soundtrack of Gregorio Allegri’s choral piece, Miserere, composed during the 1630s for use during the Holy Week matins services
in the Sistine Chapel, playing on repeat.
Gilles
Deleuze (1925-1995) conceives of the entire universe as a series of folds, with
the major fold being the point of contact between the lower level of matter and
being, and the upper level of the soul, with the critical idea being that
nothing is divided, but rather runs on as one unbroken continuum. Spall’s
paintings capture this concept perfectly: their waves of colour bringing out
the essence of life on both levels. Floating through Night, in particular, resplendent in its
varying intensities of purple, yellow, and dark, dark blue, suggests a progression
upwards from the scratched into and daubed over lower third, through a patchy
middle, where one can catch glimpses of the prepared but unpainted white canvas
gleaming through, to the darker, calmer upper band, where the struggles of life
have been replaced by a sense of serenity. Interestingly, White claims to see
John Everett Millais’ Ophelia (1851-2) in this work – either way, there is a peacefulness to it; an
end to the stresses and woes of earthly existence.
The largest
piece in the exhibition, Landscape, hangs opposite the windows, an immense
altarpiece behind a draped shelf, again lit with White’s exquisite spires. It
is flanked by smaller figure studies (enchanting, but not as fitting as the
abstracted landscapes), seascapes and coastal studies (Spall moved from her
native South East London to Whitstable ten years ago). Although the influence
of J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) is apparent in works such as Sea Light and Ships at Sea, the colour scheme remains very
much Spall’s own.
Trained in
art therapy, Spall explains that she works “intuitively, usually as an act of
expressive improvisation, musically not unlike the exploration of a free-jazz
piece, […] becom[ing] absorbed with the movements and rhythms of light, colour,
and composition.” It is perhaps no surprise, then, that her work has such a
strong sense of breaking free: capturing momentum, entropy, and the breathing
of a wave as it ebbs and flows.
Images:
Installation shot
Xavier's Spire Spectacle
Xavier White's, Blackheath
Maia Spall
Floating through Night
Oil on canvas
Maia Spall
Whitstable Coast
Call Xavier
on 07 88 99 72 374 to arrange a viewing
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