Rachel Beach

 

presented by Blackston

 

 

Born 1975 in Waterloo, ON, Canada

 

 

These works begin with something elemental - a basic geometry, a basic construction: a stack, an edge, a mark, the seam where two things meet. These straightforward beginnings set up a logic; a planting of the foot; a link to something primal or factual that can then be pinched and prodded, played against itself to reveal a mystery; something specific yet unknowable, a wrinkle, an itch.

 

In each case there is a combination of structure and image intended to create a shifting visual experience: to flatten or open up space, to knock our perception off-balance, to present a contingency of meaning. Built around concepts of solid and void, construct and language, progress and extinction, the works merge archeological and architectural influences with spatial and formal investigations. They present a back and forth between what is and isn’t there and ask us to consider how we see and what we believe.

 

 


Rachel Beach, Survey, 2011, oil on reclaimed plywood, 30 x 15 x 8 inches

Rachel Beach, Gather, 2011, oil and acrylic on plywood, reclaimed beams, 101 x 79 x 61 inches

Rachel Beach, Capture, 2011, oil and acrylic on plywood, 77 x 13 x 7 inches

Rachel Beach, Smoke Stack, 2011, oil and acrylic on plywood, reclaimed beam, 58 x 17 x 11 inches