Black Works

Black as a colour illuminates the work of Betty Goodwin.

Vests, shirts, nests; …objects from memory, objects designed for protection… are deciphered by the artist. Her incantatory practice uses light and shadow as media to pursue a truth hidden in the objects.

X-rays of memory/matter reveal lively hidden structures within its dense stillness.

Goodwin adopted such shelters, far from the busy  world. She invented layers of skin (vests, shirts) and refuges of identity (empty nests or nests cluttered with eggs ) under the carcasses of birds deprived of flight.

The viewer experiences live whispers and calls coming these powerful icons of the artist.

As though emerging from a dark echoing cave, nameless stars dance, scattering bright lights of a fervent melancholy.

Roger Bellemare, May 2023