Emma Finneran
Personal Space

Camouflage is an act of disguise and secrecy, a swallowing of the whole person/thing into obscurity. Emma’s paintings skim on an edge of concealment – what line is hers and what line was already there? Her efforts are veiled by the accidents of others and it can appear as though those efforts are minimal. Painters, like magicians, don’t usually give away their illusions this easily, but this kind of assumed inaction almost demands a behind-the-scenes TV special to outline the volume of machinations for admiration. After all, process is what abstraction-luvin’ academia lap up. Emma suggested I use the word “stochastic” to appease, but I’m more interested in this camouflage stuff in an emotional way. Sure, we talked about Pollock, automatism, Paul-Émile Borduas, Dadaism and Helen Frankenthaler, we’re not art-world newborns, but we are related and that’s bloody boring familial repartee.

– Claire Finneran