Elise Allan

The process of making my abstract collages is an instinctive one of placing scraps of painted paper together because something inarticulate, sometimes joyful, sometimes feral, demands it. The discipline is in catching and preventing imposters from staging a coup. Inner exploration, and the kinaesthetic experience of feeling, have always been drivers in my creative practice, along with a simple desire to feed my eyes with colour. The process provides moments where possibilities of reconciling opposites open up – a flat, non-representational surface becomes spacious, noise becomes silence, and ruthlessness is revealed as unexpectedly tender.