
Niru Ratnam – Nell Brookfield: When the Knife Hits the Plate, Scream
(27 May – 25 June, 2022) Nell Brookfield makes paintings that convey the heightened specificity of a moment. Her paintings often have nocturnal settings at parties or social gatherings. In her works, the people present, who usually would be the most noisy and animated elements there, seem momentarily frozen in their poses. In their place, the incidental elements around them take over, taking a life of their own, moving slowly, changing and morphing in organic shapes. The pattern on someone’s dress, the curls of hair on a pet dog, the wisps of smoke from a cigarette or candle. It is as if the human world pauses, and the world around us, take over, knowing that when we are gone, they will still be there.