Jemma Rowe’s latest collection of paintings are concerned with the visual evidence of absent human presence, in unviable habitats. 

Rowe’s houses are sophisticated armatures which consist principally of platforms and ladders, as if they are buildings in progress. Only they are not; rather they evidence occupation, not through the inclusion of human forms, but through the embellishments of residence.

The absence of subjects is significant and gives these large and powerful compositions edgy and uncertain atmospheres. Like an abandoned hotel in a Ballard story, we are simultaneously delighted and confounded by these structures, which comply with the laws of perspective yet defy the common-sense protocols of access. 

Where are the people who live in these compositions? It’s tempting to interpret this series of work as motifs of alienation, particularly in the wake of recent times, personal grief and loss, and current events which threaten us individually and collectively. 

However, Rowe has rendered the potentially bleak into something brightly beautiful. Simple. Escapist. An indication that we can see light and joy, even when facing the empty. 

Martin Kennedy, Artist & Curator