the longest road comprises an exhibition of recent paintings by Oliver Comerford in which the open road and the surrounding landscape furnishes a meditation on points of intersection between photography, film and painting. These small-scale paintings are fundamentally autobiographical in the sense that Comerford tends only to paint places that he himself has passed through and this serves to heighten the associative value of the work. Personal experience forms part of the narrative as the source material consists of many thousand photographs, indicating the significance of encountering such scenes first hand. These photographs are edited and distilled through the medium of paint, evoking a sense of placelessness, yet despite this ambiguity the paintings retain a level of familiarity and resonance.
Much of this familiarity exists because a road or a path has often stood as an analogy for the avenues we choose in life. Colours and shapes merge and mesh, picturing a fleeting landscape from the vantage point of a moving vehicle. These paintings propel a sense of acceleration, implying that the landscape that escapes into our peripheral vision is now in the past. Through the painted medium, imagery of uniform highways and liminal commute zones are elevated, encompassing broader, more philosophical contemplations.
Extracted from ‘To Begin, Begin’
– Ingrid Lyons is an artist and writer based in Dublin
