This artwork features a slab of meat, likely pork, wrapped in clear plastic and mounted on a burlap-covered canvas. The meat displays a striking chevron pattern, with alternating hues of pale pink and golden yellow. The textural contrast between the rough burlap and the smooth, glistening meat creates a captivating composition. The visual emphasis on the meat's form and texture, rather than its culinary purpose, suggests a commentary on the commodification of food and the human relationship with consumerism. The artist's intention may be to challenge the viewer's perceptions and encourage a deeper consideration of the cultural and ethical implications surrounding the production and consumption of meat. ...
Working mostly with watercolour, acrylic and oils on raw linen, Helene Appel renders everyday objects and substances in minute detail. Shards of spaghetti, folded blankets, or fragments of broken glass act as subjects, with Appel’s mastery of trompe l’oeil and illusionist painting magnifying the very fibre of these materials. Through the process of painting these tableaux, the intrinsic beauty of these items is revealed, and the art historical weight of the untreated linen pedestals of these entities. Blurring a minimalist aesthetic with the tropes of classical still life painting, fresh, sharp focus is gifted to these objects. Revelling in both flux and stillness, Appel depicts precise moments of transition, such as the spilling of grains or the curve of a wave forming, whilst she also applies careful precision to inanimate surfaces such as pavement stones, the bark of trees or grains of sand. What unites all of these paintings is their poetic tone, and their lyrical ability to capture the smaller moments of life in registers usually reserved for grander settings. ...
