“An oblong puddle inset in the coarse asphalt; like a fancy footprint filled to the brim with quicksilver; like a spatulate hole through which you can see the nether sky.”

Vladimir Nabokov, Bend Sinister, 1947

Amelia Barratt’s complex compositions are filled with latent energy. Guided by a voracious eye for the often overlooked details in the post industrial landscape that surrounds her studio in Glasgow, Barratt finds her inspiration in car washes, tool centres and the perpetual hum of traffic bisecting the city. Looking beyond the persistent activity of bodies in motion, she is drawn instead to the remnants and detritus of industrial labour: oil spilled on the ground, spent gas canisters and a bulk order of engine coolant stacked on a pallet. These industrial tableau become the source for Barratt’s intricate paintings that hover somewhere between abstraction, still life and landscape.

Walking to the studio every day, Barratt documents these scenes on her phone, zooming in and cropping to the point at which the image becomes difficult to decipher. The first phase of painting is intense, focused and fluid taking place under the guise of drawing, trying to make sense of the forms until a starting point is achieved. Thereafter, the cadence shifts towards a slower kind of attention, where being faithful towards the original source gives way to imaginative possibilities and time spent with the surface of the painting. The application of paint is varied. Thickly applied, opaque areas of block colour collide with thin washes and sections where the paint has been scratched or wiped away. Colour plays a central role. The palette draws on the coded language of the city: the red, green and amber of traffic lights, the primary blue of street signage and the seductive glow of neon. There is a sense that Barratt's hues and tones are mined directly from our collective consciousness.

Marina is Barratt's first exhibition at CORPUS and will open to the public on Saturday 21st March 4-7pm. The exhibition will continue until Saturday 2nd May.