An exhibition by Helen Shields

Contours is an interpretation of the natural world. This suite of works responds to the physical features witnessed on the earth’s surface and their relation to the underlying geomorphology and geological structures encountered.

The works explore the reiteration of reductive, elemental motifs in bas relief, using flat planes of colour to depict landscape; not in any conventional realistic manner, but to apply the visual language of hard edge abstraction based on organic and geometric forms (developed in the artist’s previous work). The addition of planar and sculptural elements add further emphasises to the physiography of each piece.

Its aim is to gaze towards to a world beyond ordinary appearances – where the physical and structural are realised by shifts in perspective via a Neo Brutalist aesthetic.