Paintings by Harley Weir presents images made as a form of digression from her traditional photographic practice. Presented as short, rhythmical sequences, Paintings moves across the page like a melody, linking rhythm, colour and form through surface studies made consistently throughout the last three years. Intended to be considered outside the constraints of context and place, the images in Paintings attempt to exist at the threshold of photographic composition, while forming part of Weir's search for a 'pure' image. With each picture made according to a specific set of rules and criteria, Weir attempts to expunge herself from the act of image-making, and encounter photography as an immediate, indulging process.
These images are nevertheless underscored by tension and palpable throughout Weir’s practice - the transgressing of surfaces and boundaries, the uneasy relationship between camera and subject, and the inevitable constraints of choice and power that hover around the frame of a photograph. In this sense, these images can be thought of as both liberation from and a mirror to Weir’s diverse output in fashion, editorial and portraiture photography.
