Not Ghosts, But Just As Loud
Tahnee Lonsdale
Tahnee Lonsdale’s ethereal, ghostly compositions explore the delicate interplays between consciousness, affection and sorrow. Painted in groups, or “couplets” as she sometimes refers to them, Lonsdale’s dreamlike scenes are surprisingly relatable, despite the absence of explicit human presence.
Not Ghosts, But Just As Loud is Tahnee Lonsdale’s first presentation at MASSIMODECARLO Pièce Unique.
Inspired by the notions of “tribe” and sisterhood, as well mysticism and “otherness”, Lonsdale’s formal influences range from sci-fi movies such as James Cameron’s 1989 The Abyss, to Dorothea Tanning’s surrealist figurines.
Suspended in moments of affection, her alien, almost amorphous masses huddle together, face-down, exuding a sense of intimacy and collective experience, between comfort and melancholy. The rounded, flowing shapes of the bodies are reminiscent of motherly wombs, an overarching protective presence.
Giving form to her ambivalent sensations, combining fear and comfort, darkness and light, abstraction and figuration, Lonsdale’s deeply hybrid compositions reveal the tension between abstract mark making and the narrative question of “what is out there”.
Aliens, UFO’s, ghosts… are all imaginary archetypes of “otherness”. However just like her figures seem alien to us, we may well be alien to them. Resonating strongly with the theme of this year’s Venice Biennale, “Foreigners everywhere” this body of work invites the viewer to catch a glimpse of other life forms, or perhaps of another person’s interior realm.
The Artist
Tahnee Lonsdale is an artist rendering emotional divinity through the use of layered oil paints and ethereal, intuitive compositions. Born in 1982 and raised in Sussex, UK, Tahnee attended the University of the Arts in London where she primarily studied painting, graduating with a BFA in 2007. After moving to LA in 2015, her practice evolved to embrace large-scale painting, soft sculpture, and works on paper. Tahnee Lonsdale lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.