'There is beauty there but it’s also a bit subverted': Ella Walker at Pilar Corrias

Ella Walker’s paintings are layered in every sense of the word. Informed by traditional painting techniques as well as drawing and collage, her pieces depict figures with knowing or emotionally complex expressions, inviting the viewer to untangle the rich scenes in front of them. For her first solo exhibition at Pilar Corrias, Walker has taken inspiration from the 13th-century French poem ‘The Romance of the Rose’, exploring both its use of language and its form as a medieval manuscript, featuring tiny egg tempera paintings.

The original poem follows a lover who enters a metaphysical enclosed garden and desires to pluck a fresh rose, drawing parallels with courtship. Walker was interested in the language used to describe romantic love. ‘There is a sexual intensity, but also a violence within it,’ she tells me. ‘There is a lot of quite sexist language, exploring this idea of courtly love within the medieval period, but also this power play. The passive role is given to the woman.’

Women take a central role within Walker’s work, which contains moments of both humour and psychological darkness. For ‘The Romance of the Rose’, she has explored the presentation and treatment of women and their bodies throughout the ages, touching on the revealing and concealing nature of lingerie and fetish wear; generic female characters who embody vices such as hatred and envy; and stock ‘commedia dell’arte’ characters. Her figures are variously exposed, playful, dangerous and joyous; always difficult to pin down. Many project a powerful gaze directly towards the viewer, raising questions of control and spectatorship within the subject-viewer dynamic.

‘There is beauty there but it’s also a bit subverted,’ Walker tells me of her women. One work is named after the often-vilified prophetic Greek mythical figure of Medea – who famously helped Jason to steal the golden fleece and killed her own children in some versions of the story. ‘She is referenced in “The Romance of the Rose” as a terrible woman who has done terrible things,’ says Walker, who has also reflected upon Maria Callas’ portrayal of Medea. In Pasolini’s 1969 film, this character is seen through both a pagan and a classical lens. It is the classical format that breaks her. ‘What is appropriate within each context is so different, so in the second part she loses her mind and becomes vicious and violent,’ says Walker. ‘In the Western world we often think about depictions of women’s bodies in classical form, but messiness and violence are very embodied within women.’

Elements of control and mess are reflected in the artist’s technique. There is a strong sense of control in her use of line and form, though there are moments of dripping and puddling, as though these neatly ordered parts could come apart at any moment. Similarly, the bodies she depicts are often made of composite elements, creating a disturbingly disjointed feel. Her flattened compositions seem the place the viewer right in the middle of the action, in a very direct spatial and emotional relation to the figures. She uses her own pigments, and also works with egg tempera, watercolour and acrylic.

This exhibition follows Walker’s long dedication to historical source material, especially that which has a narrative suggestion. She often draws upon the early Renaissance, inspired by frescos and the work of Piero della Francesca and Giotto. She also explores the Ballets Russes and more contemporary imagery, such as the secret erotic polaroids of Carlo Mollino. She looks for an element of the unknown within her source material, from which she has some freedom to play.

‘It’s not to subvert those traditional ideas,’ she tells me of her mixing influences. ‘There is a stillness and beauty to them, and I think it’s interesting to bring in more contemporary images or 1960s pin-up magazine cuttings and rework them into the paintings. I like to be aware of these reference points and then when I’m making my work I can really play around and fill in the gaps for myself. There is a lot of potential in that unknown. It’s open and alive.’

Ella Walker presents her first exhibition at London's Pilar Corrias gallery, 'The Romance of the Rose' from 11 September – 9 November 2024

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