Tori Beeche
Species of Spaces
This project explores the creation of space as a relational dimension between human interaction and our understanding of the world around us. In the tradition of Western genre painting, where a room becomes a site for inquiry, ‘Species of Spaces’ examines the forces at play to represent an interior space.
French philosopher, Michel Foucault’s idea of ‘heterotopia’ provided an alternative way to contemplate the construction of the spaces we occupy, forming a spatial dimension from the social, emotional and aesthetic narratives they hold. This concept is interesting to painters and is seen in the resurgence of contemporised genre painting today.
The Norway I have imagined in these paintings is a heterotopia of nostalgic affliction and a response to notions of displacement and migration. For me, the canvas offers a space to re-negotiate history by connecting different locations in a heterotopian dimension.