Elling Reitan's characters and figures inhabit a world of their own, a world of his creation where he is free to paint his consciousness in the colours he perceives it in.
In the works displayed at Gallery Time and Space on Lavelle Road, his “Yin and Yang” signature with the black and white, almost microscopic, indistinct figures continue in every painting. They come up close only in “Landscape” standing atop a terraced hill in a landscape that looks a bit like a darkened Hobbiton (from Tolkien's “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings”). Three more figures in black stand near a tree at the back.
His forms are also never quite fully defined. But the scene itself says it all. Take “Song of Songs 5: He reached out his hands”, here a nude man and a woman, painted in blue, hold hands, even as the man looks away. They both stand on what look like waves, painted in black and white, in a red background fading into light near the woman. The left side panel is occupied by large flower motifs in green, while his ever-present stick figures walk on a blue landscape, tinged with green where they walk. Line motifs are painted onto panels in the top and right.
Similarly, in “Addoration”, wraiths in red and blue gaze up while a central “picture in picture” is occupied by a lonely-looking girl gazing out, looking downwards. A black gaping hole fills the space behind her head.
In “Solomon's Song of Songs: Let us go out in the fields”, he depicts a man and a woman sitting on a field, locked in passion in a heart-shaped window. The twin figures walk in the horizon.
Then there is the striking “Inner View”, of a woman in blonde curls, face intersected at the centre in a hazy line. Her eyes are covered by a thick grey band and her face is covered in writing. Her frame gives off an orange luminescence. It seems like the artist is trying to say that the answers to the eternal questions lie inside oneself. The twin figures, who could represent the opposite, mutually dependent forces in life (like joy-sorrow, heat-cold), look like they hold the key to understanding life. It's hard to understand what the artist is trying to say in works like “Reclining Nude”, where a naked woman, except for horizontal zebra striped leggings lies sprawled across the ground. The microscopic twin figures stand on her.
Or even in “Peacock Adventure” where the central window shows two peacocks, tails tapering into one of the two floating man-wraiths in orange and white. They are all looking at the twin figures in the distance on a green landscape and a blue sky. He has two outlines around the central window, one with peacock motifs and other with orange peacocks.
There are other works, where a woman with large wings has a “Broken Wing”. Is it dripping blood or is it in the process of “Transfiguration”, red butterfly wings? Here, a mystical white horse occupies the skyscape on her right. The horse also makes an occasional appearance in a few other works.
Sometimes his figures, in works like “Explusion from Paradise” and characters like the woman with wings seem like their inspiration comes from the medieval period, sometimes they are hazy and sometimes they are more contemporary like in “Inner View”. But his signature twin-figures, his blue-red-orange-green, black and white shades or his surreal, essentially Western landscapes will not make it very hard for the viewer to identify Elling Reitan. Elling's works will be on display at Gallery Time and Space, Lavelle Road, until November 19. For details, contact 22124117.
