Somatic Backdrop

The mood of Milli Jannides’ painting is guided by books she is reading, notes (visual and written) and a sort of wandering contemplation. Through this mental roaming she translates the emotional conditions of character and event into physical landscapes and environments. The original stimuli act as triggers and also reference points during the course of the painting and affect its reading by viewers.

Jannides’ own personal responses and interactions are echoed across the canvas in changing tempo, strokes, shifting compositional space, and colour systems that overlap and combine. The result is an often oblique conclusion as the painting ferries viewers away from its sources and into abstract modes. The works’ titles suggest ways to traverse internal painterly directions – fast, slow, seized or stopped. Conventional painting categorisations become irrelevant as Jannides dips in and out of technical devices. A narrative mode is exploited for its ability to invite viewers in, not to offer continuity. Finally, it is the back and forth between the painting’s passageways that captures our interest.

– Necessary Distraction, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, 2015

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