In Brittany Shepherd’s recent exhibition, “Waltz of the Mired,” five modestly sized paintings hang on the walls of Tilling Gallery’s main room, the floor painted an unassuming Sculptor’s Clay grey. One painting, Grace, hangs above the sink in the entranceway. We see mud gunked onto the bottom of a purple strappy stiletto in Mhairi; a tangle of limbs and an ass smeared in viscous slime in Cadence.
Though not explicitly pornographic, Shepherd’s paintings suggest an indirect eroticism, something our libidinal instinct recognizes as erogenous: a sticky substance; something clean made dirty. In Vera, a pair of legs seen from the calf down are standing in slick mud. White strappy shoes, whose stiletto heels sink into the earth, reflect against a murky puddle. In Faithe, arguably the most arresting in pure painting technique, green slime seeps across a woman’s face, more granny smith apple in colour than Nickelodeon neon. Its translucency is emphasized at its thinnest points: stretched across Faithe’s nose or enrobing her bottom lip.
The smears of slime or clumps of cream on the alias-protected subjects of Shepherd’s paintings offer their viewers a vicarious sensuality—something you can feel whether you like it or not—reintroducing physiology to purely visual media. I think about ASMR slime videos and the pursuit of tingles: a longing for the sensation of touch through the flatness of a screen.
But unlike an online space, we have less agency in a gallery, unable to scroll, click, or seek our particular fix if we don’t see it. Here, the artist plays dom to the viewer’s sub, removing our control in order to scratch at the complexity of libidinal impulse.
In this, Shepherd isolates a devotional gathering of images for a new audience to contemplate. Through paint, its own messy mush, she translates the digital to physical in a bid to slow the cadence of the dark web’s ravenous image factory to a lazy waltz. Butting intimacy up against anonymity—and bringing private pleasures to a public space— ”The Waltz of the Mired” favours a wet and messy stillness, asking: do you like what you see?
“Victoria”, 2021 Oil on panel 24 X 18″
“Cadence”, 2021 Oil on panel 18 X 24″
“Faithe”, 2021 Oil on panel 18 X 24″
“Mhairi”, 2021 Oil on panel 18 X 24″
“Vera”, 2021 Oil on panel 18 X 18”
Photos by Simon Belleau, Courtesy of Tilling Gallery
Brittany Shepherd’s Waltz of the Mired
Review by Emma Sharpe
In Brittany Shepherd’s recent exhibition, “Waltz of the Mired,” five modestly sized paintings hang on the walls of Tilling Gallery’s main room, the floor painted an unassuming Sculptor’s Clay grey. One painting, Grace, hangs above the sink in the entranceway. We see mud gunked onto the bottom of a purple strappy stiletto in Mhairi; a tangle of limbs and an ass smeared in viscous slime in Cadence.
Though not explicitly pornographic, Shepherd’s paintings suggest an indirect eroticism, something our libidinal instinct recognizes as erogenous: a sticky substance; something clean made dirty. In Vera, a pair of legs seen from the calf down are standing in slick mud. White strappy shoes, whose stiletto heels sink into the earth, reflect against a murky puddle. In Faithe, arguably the most arresting in pure painting technique, green slime seeps across a woman’s face, more granny smith apple in colour than Nickelodeon neon. Its translucency is emphasized at its thinnest points: stretched across Faithe’s nose or enrobing her bottom lip.
The smears of slime or clumps of cream on the alias-protected subjects of Shepherd’s paintings offer their viewers a vicarious sensuality—something you can feel whether you like it or not—reintroducing physiology to purely visual media. I think about ASMR slime videos and the pursuit of tingles: a longing for the sensation of touch through the flatness of a screen.
But unlike an online space, we have less agency in a gallery, unable to scroll, click, or seek our particular fix if we don’t see it. Here, the artist plays dom to the viewer’s sub, removing our control in order to scratch at the complexity of libidinal impulse.
In this, Shepherd isolates a devotional gathering of images for a new audience to contemplate. Through paint, its own messy mush, she translates the digital to physical in a bid to slow the cadence of the dark web’s ravenous image factory to a lazy waltz. Butting intimacy up against anonymity—and bringing private pleasures to a public space— ”The Waltz of the Mired” favours a wet and messy stillness, asking: do you like what you see?
“Victoria”, 2021
Oil on panel
24 X 18″
“Cadence”, 2021
Oil on panel
18 X 24″
“Faithe”, 2021
Oil on panel
18 X 24″
“Mhairi”, 2021
Oil on panel
18 X 24″
“Vera”, 2021
Oil on panel
18 X 18”
Photos by Simon Belleau, Courtesy of Tilling Gallery