Kirsty Templeton Davidge: Woman’s Work

As chaotic and unsettled as our world is today, there are some consolations. Among them, an increased critical attention to language – the words we use to describe our everyday experiences. Although criticism can magnify our unsettled feelings, it is necessary if we are to correct the direction of our ailing planet and our fractured social relations. While the title of KirstyTempleton Davidge’s exhibition evokes stereo-typical gendered activity, the ostensible absence of that activity has us considering the interior lives of her emotionally labouring subjects.

Woman’s Work consists of 10 oil-on-canvas portraits of women, painted in the realist style. Half are frontal, from shoulders to thigh; all of these canvases are square, varying from 24 x 24 to 48 x 48 inches. In the other five canvases, none of the subjects face the viewer; all feature single figures, except Generation II (2022), which is a double portrait. The smallest painting, Young Woman (2022), shows only the back of a woman, from the shoulders up; the remaining four depict women from their sides.

The care Templeton Davidge has given to her series reflects an attentiveness to the work that goes on inside bodies, work that for certain segments of the public often goes unseen. Of the less revealing square works, titles are divided between body parts (Working Hands and Working Hands II, 2022) and what the body is wearing, be it a T-shirt that reads JUST ENJOY THE DAY, a see-through rain jacket (over the same T-shirt) or a buttoned jacket. Whether bared or clothed, it is the content of these works combined that, through various formal and thematic inter-relationships, allows this series to transcend the sum of its parts.

Opening reception with the artist Sep 15, 7-9pm

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