Secrets and Dreams is an exhibition of recent paintings by Twinkle Troughton, which includes works from two of her series, das Mutterland and Bomb Ponds. Twinkle’s small-scale paintings on paper explore the relationship between landscape and narrative. The starting point is always with an image of somewhere that exists, and the end point is with a painting that lies between reality and myth. By using a limited palette, Twinkle seeks to remove a sense of time and realism from her paintings. Mixing oil paints with mediums that oppose each other, distorted layers, stains, and drips form dream-like landscapes in which a scene is set.
The series das Mutterland are paintings from photos that Twinkle took when visiting family in Germany. At the root of these works are notions of displacement or belonging, as she considers her family’s history during and post WWII, and how ‘home’ was something transient and safety was searched for. Germany’s culture is laden with folklore; the woodland landscapes are steeped with dark tales. The fairy tale homes Twinkle paints look idyllic but haunting, as if they hold secrets and we can only be left to wonder what might have taken place behind those walls or who may have lived there.
These themes of landscape and narrative carry on through to Twinkle’s Bomb Ponds paintings. This series of works considers scars or remnants of historic events on our landscapes, which have an appearance of the ‘everyday’ and will often go overlooked. Bomb ponds are ponds, which have formed within craters on the earth as a result of bombs dropping during WW2. Nature has reclaimed the marks made by these horrific events, and these seemingly unspectacular ponds now contain life and are in their own way a small miracle.
The series das Mutterland are paintings from photos that Twinkle took when visiting family in Germany. At the root of these works are notions of displacement or belonging, as she considers her family’s history during and post WWII, and how ‘home’ was something transient and safety was searched for. Germany’s culture is laden with folklore; the woodland landscapes are steeped with dark tales. The fairy tale homes Twinkle paints look idyllic but haunting, as if they hold secrets and we can only be left to wonder what might have taken place behind those walls or who may have lived there.
These themes of landscape and narrative carry on through to Twinkle’s Bomb Ponds paintings. This series of works considers scars or remnants of historic events on our landscapes, which have an appearance of the ‘everyday’ and will often go overlooked. Bomb ponds are ponds, which have formed within craters on the earth as a result of bombs dropping during WW2. Nature has reclaimed the marks made by these horrific events, and these seemingly unspectacular ponds now contain life and are in their own way a small miracle.
The Work
If Walls Could Talk (das Mutterland) II
oil on paper
20x14.5cm
2019
Secrets and Dreams
oil on paper,
21x15cm,
2020
Windows are the Eyes (das Mutterland) II
oil on paper
20.5x15cm
2019
If Walls Could Talk (das Mutterland) I
Oil on paper,
15x21cm,
2020
Windows are the Eyes II (das Mutterland)
oil on paper
20.5x14cm
2019
Monotypes
Imagined Woodland II
monotype,
oil on paper,
9 x 15cm,
2019
Installation Views
Twinkle Troughton - Bomb Pond Paintings, Oh Bondage! Up Yours! Exhibition, Margate March 2020
Twinkle Troughton and Helen Berminham, Scwarzwald exhibition, Margate De 2019
Twinkle Troughton Monotypes, Schwarzwald exhibiton, Margate Dec 2019
About Twinkle Troughton
Twinkle Troughton has exhibited widely in the UK and internationally, including Galerie Micheala Stock in Vienna, Redbull's Hangar 7 in Salzburg and the OCCCA in California. Recent UK exhibitions include Jealous Gallery, London, and Studio 1 Gallery, Wandsworth London. Twinkle also curates exhibitions and is the Arts & Culture editor and writer for Margate Mercury.