Sentient Worlds

My first solo exhibition, Sentient Worlds, showed at Niddrie Library as part of Incinerator Gallery’s Offsite Exhibition Program.

Sentient Worlds is a series of works on paper which reflects on the role and importance of my imagination, as a neurodivergent person, understood and explored through abstract painting and my creation of ‘sentient’ and alternate worlds. These inner landscapes are a sanctuary for heightened states which arise from my interactions with an inaccessible world. They quieten the mind and equalise the senses.

Oil paint, diluted to watercolour consistency, allowed me to explore the sensory dimensions of this experience through the paper surface. Paper is a surface that changes as it absorbs materials. Drips cascade into wide, sweeping gestures, creating fissures in the colour when one layer of oil meets another. I consider interactions between paint and paper as vulnerable as the relationship between our inner and outer worlds.

The works were exhibited over the children’s reading area to encourage viewers to engage with ideas of the imagination, storytelling and accessibility in a community setting.

On 16 November, I presented an Artist Talk for Incinerator Gallery’s Art Bus event, sharing insight into my ideas, inspiration and methods for the series.