In the paintings High lonesome and Land grab, we witness male figures dressed as cowboys at work, performing the manual labour of constructing shelters and fences. This use of the metaphor of building, of course, speaks of simplistic frontier civilisations and the dividing of land, but further to this, it cleverly runs parallel to Rook�s own construction of space as a painter, through his assemblage of source imagery and the multiple layers of paint application. Rook acknowledges the common ground between the heroic iconography of the early settlers, defining their own identities, and the myth of the artist, searching for answers. This is further reinforced through Rook�s choice of raw brown linen to paint on, where he is playing with the embryonic relationship of the �ground� of his painting, and the raw dry landscape of the imagery. Thus, it�s perhaps not stretching the imagination to see the figure in High lonesome as Rook, the painter, making his presence and position felt within the terrain of contemporary painting.
James Brooks,
[email protected]Written for 'We live like this', Lounge Gallery, London
