‘A dream of crumbling teeth can be read as a sign of powerlessness and indecision (this according the content farmers at teethfallingoutdream.org, whose authority on the matter I trust implicitly). With deathly chill, Thorleifson swaddles these insecurities in seductive surfaces, all crisp white canvas, washes of Day-Glo colour and chintzy silver foils. Her ear is tuned critically to melodrama, to the polarized tenor of adolescent feelings, and the manufacture of high emotion in retail settings, pop culture and contemporary art alike. In the paintings, listless puddles of near-fluorescent sky blue and careful swipes of caution orange and highlighter yellow bloodlessly pantomime the “expressive” gesticulations of modernist abstraction. They’re arresting and lovely, if a bit bratty, betraying occasional, earnest echoes of Helen Frankenthaler’s soft-bodied dreamscapes.’
Winnipeg Free Press ‘Teen Angst-dreams’ by Steven Leyden Cochrane.
Contact
www.rachaelthorleifson.com
CV