Eleanor Breeze - Home Today, Home Tomorrow

About

The Broadway Gallery pleased to announce  Home Today, Home Tomorrow, the culmination of the first Letchworth Residency with artist Eleanor Breeze. The works shown have been developed in collaboration with the good people of LGC who sent Eleanor images that represented their lockdown experiences. Rather that a literal copy of these photographs, Eleanor has worked to evoke something further in her painting, with layers of brushstrokes representing memory, the passage of time and the often repetitive nature of life over the last 18 months. Although taking the form of an exhibition this presentation will actually be a continuation of the residency as Eleanor will be on site every Thursday until September 5th, working on new canvasses while in the main gallery. She would love it if you could visit and discuss your memories of lockdown during this time…you could even end up immortalised in one of her works!

Eleanor’s work reimagines memories and old photographs to create scenes that may or may not have occurred in the past. She is interested in the idea of trying to establish some control over the uncontrollable by reproducing images of people whom she once held close relationships with, but who are no longer in her life. By introducing fictional narratives to the images, Breeze questions our relationship to the past.

Place and object is as important as the figure in Breeze’s painting. Often set in ageing domestic interiors, the images feature particular icons or evocative objects such as a whisky glass or a favourite pair of shoes that may acquire relic status when viewed retrospectively. Quick gestural marks alongside more detailed areas suggest different time frames in the painting process, and disrupt a simple reading of the image. Ultimately, the images remain ambiguous; they are often melancholy, making reference to something lost or just out of reach.