Len Gordon

In 2023, Rachel Coyne painted a woman rolling her eyes. The picture is small, acrylic and oil on a wood panel, and it is called Eyeroll. Beside it in the same series sit Would Ya Go Awaayy, Don’t Be Lookin At Me, Will Yiz Ever, SIck of these Lads and Handsy. The subject of all of them is Susanna and the Elders, the biblical story in which two men hide in a garden to watch a woman bathe, then threaten her when she refuses them.

The first impression of artist Xiaojing Zhang’s pH 7.75 is uncertainty and the unknown. Against a stark black background, thousands of cyan particles drift through translucent clouds that expand, break apart and gather again. At times, they resemble plankton viewed under a microscope; at others, they suggest cells, constellations or underwater currents illuminated by artificial light. Yet none of these forms remains stable long enough to become fully recognisable.

It’s funny, writing about art. What lands in the inbox can be hit or miss. Sometimes I know immediately what I think. Most of the time, I don’t. I can spend an entire day travelling, or sitting still, just looking at things, only to find that what stays with me is something I didn’t understand. A colour. A material. The way something was placed in a room. Something that seemed completely insignificant when I first saw it. Then, two days later, I’m still thinking about it.