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          Oona Ratcliffe



Artist Statement
    
    
My paintings map a world where perpetual suspension in the immediate present, the right now, becomes a consumptive mode of being. At once flamboyantly seductive and discomfortingly repulsive the paintings are saturated with color areas organized into disparate energetic structures. Creating deep and shallow spaces, varying directional shifts and particulate undulations these structures invite the eye to skitter across the painting's surfaces. By keeping the opposition between the figure and ground unsettled, the picture constantly shifts; there are no resting points. Metaphorically enacting an existence governed by the moment and a frenetic, dislocated seeking of immediate sensation, it is my hope that this work will show its viewers the opulent, sensuous and attractive -- but paradoxically ungrounded, shallow and disordered -- permutations of such a state.