An innovator in the new English figuration, PJ Crook renders urban crowds which while they consist of individuals absorbed in their own newspaper, cocktail or itinerary are nonetheless interchangeable archetypes. Or sometimes they are members of a family who are more interested in their own game, reading or mirror than in the person in front of them, There is always a poignant solitude surrounding these characters onto which the theatrical staging adds a colourful dash of humour.
The artist is a virtuoso in the mischievous art of beguiling our perceptions and expectations. She plays with the notions of painting: not only does she add almost undetectable carved reliefs on the flat canvas but she then extends them into open boxes - where all the surfaces, both inside and outside, are engaged in the narrative
She confuses our sense of space: the spectator, deceived by the mirror effects, often looks at a scene actually taking place behind him.
She plays games with questions of identity: twins are sometimes the same person, likewise opposing players can be reflections of each other.
PJ manipulates time: the same person can be represented at different ages in the same work or simultaneously doing contradictory things. She enjoys mixing ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ perspective or carefully painting the shadow thrown by a relief object - which may then superimpose itself on the real shadow thereof, depending on the angle it is seen from. Her work is a disconcerting meditation on our assumptions of reality.
Figure originale de la nouvelle figuration anglaise, Crook représente des foules urbaines dont tous les individus, bien qu’absorbés chacun dans leur propre journal, cocktail ou cheminement, demeurent des archétypes interchangeables. Ou bien des familles dont les membres s’intéressent plus à leur jeu, lecture ou miroir qu’à leur vis-à-vis. Amère solitude qu’une mise en scène théâtralisée colore d’humour.
L’artiste manie en virtuose l’art espiègle de troubler la perception. Elle manipule la notion de tableau: non contente de continuer par d’indécelables reliefs sculptés les trompe-l’oeil réalistes inscrits dans le plan de la toile, elle transforme cette dernière en une boîte ouverte - dont toutes les faces intérieures et extérieures sont historiées. Elle perturbe l’espace : trompé par les jeux de miroirs, le spectateur regarde souvent une scène qui se passe en réalité derrière lui. Elle joue l’incertitude identitaire : les jumeaux parfois sont un seul individu reflété dans une glace, les Britanniques en chapeau melon portent teint basané, les joueurs qui s’opposent sont des différents bien semblables.
PJ jongle avec le temps : une personne peut être représentée à tous les âges sur une même oeuvre, ou y vaquer simultanément à des occupations contradictoires. Elle s’amuse à mêler vraies et fausses perspectives, comme à peindre méticuleusement l’ombre portée d’un objet en relief - qui se superpose ou non à l’ombre réelle dudit objet selon l’endroit d’où l’on regarde. Son travail est une réflexion déconcertée sur le principe de réalité.
Béatrice Comte
‘Ever since Hogarth there have been British artists who have reflected on life as it is really lived, but viewed from the grotesque side. In the twentieth century this has taken on an added intensity one might call expressionist in the work of artists like Stanley Spencer, William Roberts and Carel Weight. As in their work so in Crook’s, there is a feeling that something odd lies just beneath the surface: these ordinary people going about their ordinary business are somehow set apart, irradiated by a strange otherworldly light; for all their ordinariness, they are marching to a different drummer. And in fact, despite her almost defiant Britishness, it is not by chance that she has worked so much with French galleries and is so highly valued abroad. The strangeness in her works may also recall a very different order of strangeness, that of Surrealists like the great Belgian Delvaux, master of moonlit mystery. Crook’s paintings have the unexpectedness of real life and the hallucinatory clarity of a dream. The art has excellent connections, but finally it stands on its own feet and confidently possesses its own personal world.’
John Russell Taylor
