British artist Rachel Howard explores 'madness of two'
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A paranoid married couple believe intruders are entering their house, spreading dust and ‘wearing down their shoes’. One twin sister provokes the other to run into the path of an oncoming car having done so herself a few seconds earlier. These recorded cases inspired the 42-year-old to create a series of paintings exploring the disturbing malady of 'Folie à Deux', currently on exhibition in London
Howard’s trademark style sees the paint seeping down the canvases so that it 'clings' on to the works’ surfaces. This mirrors the acts of desperation and essence of this exhibition (Acrylic, house hold gloss and oil on canvas: © Rachel Howard/ Blain|Southern/ Peter Mallett)
Folie à deux, French for ‘madness of two’, is the clinical definition for a psychosis in which delusional beliefs are transmitted from one individual to another. This central painting of the exhibition shows a heavily pregnant woman lying on her back, head outstretched and legs splayed (Acrylic, household gloss and oil on canvas: © Rachel Howard/ Blain|Southern/ Peter Mallett)
German-Danish-British artist Walter Sickert’s painting What Shall We Do About The Rent? depicted intimate scenes of desolation. Howard too addresses the emotional tensions existing within the routines of everyday life. Commonplace domestic objects are seen from unusual or unnerving perspectives (Acrylic, oil and household gloss on canvas: © Rachel Howard/ Blain|Southern/ Peter Mallett)
The fragility of the human condition can be easily unhinged by those around us. As Sartre said: ‘Hell is other people’ (Acrylic and household gloss on canvas: © Rachel Howard/ Blain|Southern/ Peter Mallett)
Rachel Howard was born in County Durham in 1969 and graduated from Goldsmiths College, London in 1992. She has exhibited in Naples, Palma de Mallorca, Zurich, Amsterdam as well as Los Angeles and North Carolina
Catch the exhibition at Blain|Southern in London from 12 October - 22 December at 21 Dering Street, W1S 1AL (Acrylic, house hold gloss and oil on canvas: © Rachel Howard/ Blain|Southern/ Peter Mallett)