THE SHOPHOUSE is pleased to present From Another Room, the first solo exhibition in Asia by UK-based artist Rachel Lancaster, featuring a new body of works on canvas that posits paintings as windows into other spaces. As if imagery transmitted from a parallel dimension, the artworks elucidate but solitary moments yet each containing cues of continuation. Evocative of suspense and displacement, the exhibition pieces together fragments of an omitted narrative, untold as to whether a memory, a story, or a daydream.

A turned head, an unopened box, an arm that reaches beyond the edge of the canvas – anticipation and the festering feeling of uncertainty are the marks of Lancaster’s works. Realized by the intentional withholding of information, the enticing tension between absence and presence is further enhanced by the artist’s masterful portrayal of imagined textures. Familiar sensations, such as the crisp of tissue paper or the residual heat of a pillow recently slept on, become both means of immersion and clues to the before and after. Activating the depicted scenes via the arousal of tactile associations, even the air within becomes vivid with density – almost palpable, separated merely by the surface of the painting.

Influenced by her childhood ways of image consumption, namely watching VHS tapes on TV, Lancaster’s paintings possess a luminous quality as if lit from behind. Her works are also characterized by a certain graininess that obscures the time-space of the illustrated narrative, wherein the audience becomes a remote and foreign observer. As the line of sight comes to an end at the edge of the frame, curious viewers are left to wonder the context beyond, as if reaching the cliffhanger of a story. The allure of Lancaster’s artworks emanates not from the answers they reveal, but rather the questions they leave behind.

THE SHOPHOUSE 欣然呈獻英國藝術家瑞秋·蘭卡斯特（Rachel Lancaster）於亞洲的首次個展「來自別處」（From Another Room），展出一系列全新的繪畫作品。她將繪畫視作通往其他空間的窗戶——這些彷彿從平行空間傳送過來的圖像，細述獨處的時刻，卻又隱隱地暗示著延續。展覽令人聯想到懸疑與位移，將遺漏的敘事片段拼湊在一起：無論是回憶、故事或白日夢，都無從說起。

一次轉頭、一個尚未打開的盒子、一隻伸到畫布邊緣外的手——預期和不斷發酵的不確定感成為了瑞秋·蘭卡斯特作品的標記。藉由刻意隱藏畫面中的信息，藝術家對想像紋理的精湛描繪，進一步強化了存在與不存在之間的誘人張力。那些熟悉的感受，例如紙巾的粗糙或剛睡過的枕頭的餘溫，既令人沉浸，同時亦成為揭示過去和現在的線索。通過激發對於觸覺的聯想，畫面中的場景變得生動起來——連空氣都變得清晰可見——人們幾乎可以觸摸到，僅僅只是被畫布表面隔開而已。

瑞秋·蘭卡斯特的繪畫受到童年時期觀看VHS電視錄影帶的圖像消費方式影響，彷彿有一種從後方照亮的光亮特質。她的作品帶著某種顆粒感，遮蔽了插圖敘述的時間與空間，觀眾成為遙遠而陌生的觀察者。當視線在畫面的邊緣終止時，好奇的觀者就會對畫面以外的情境感到好奇，好像到了故事中最扣人心弦的片段一樣。瑞秋·蘭卡斯特的作品的誘惑並非來自它們所揭示的答案，而是它們所留下的問題。