Combining directness and clarity with a lyrical flourish, Lorraine Rastorfer’s recent work continues her exploration of layering and gestural weaving. There is a heightened visual volume in these new works, shimmering textured surfaces are more enlivened and there is a new complexity of movement and articulate mark-making. For Rastorfer ‘each painting is the emergent variation of the one that preceded it. The same tools and techniques are applied to each work. What differs is the colour and the gesture, the way the paint responds, the tonal variations, the texture. And within the larger patterning there are microfeatures such as pores, apertures, pits or slits on the surface’. (1)

Multiple layers of transparent paint woven in with iridescent varnish generate a charged atmosphere; nuance and energy are both manifest and latent. Light is simultaneously captured and reflected enabling the viewer to infiltrate the fluid surface in full sensory immersion. In this intense painterly territory there is a constant tide of ambiguity reflective of Rastorfer’s skilful ability to navigate multiple dimensions through a masterful command of paint. ‘Like a conjurer, she places her forces in motion, manipulating them until it’s all there, complete and working beautifully – so effortless we don’t realise what a tremendous balancing act these paintings are’. (2)

Rastorfer’s work is deeply informed by her early childhood in which she was exposed to both German and English words, most memorably by her Austrian grandmother who would ‘communicate with wild gesticulation and humour to make her words embody their meaning’. (3) Captivated by the cohesive power of gesture to convey intention through movement, Rastorfer began to interpret and capture the dynamics of gesture into painted form. Each painting essentially personifies its title - a manner through which Rastorfer acknowledges the source of her inspiration and depth of knowledge concerning the German language.

‘This exhibition...is dedicated to my Oma who gave much in translation and perhaps bestowed some kind of legacy of gestural communication’. Lorraine Rastorfer 2009.

(1). Jacquie Clarke, ‘Meshworks – Lorraine Rastorfer’, 2007.
(2). Katy Corner, artist review, Art News - Autumn 2009.
(3). Artist statement, 2009.