At one point in 1984’s legendary rock mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, guitarist Nigel Tufnel stares at an album cover and says: “It’s like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black.” That’s how viewers might feel looking at the Indonesian artist Christine Ay Tjoe’s new exhibition Black, KcalB, Black, KcalB, which is showing at White Cube Bermondsey until 20 January 2019. These oil paintings unsettle as much as they enthrall the eye, and explore the potential for darkness in all of us. Instead of trying to ignore it, what if we try and channel our subconscious darkness into something and accept it? Ay Tjoe’s new works enact us looking at and even appreciating that essential but undesirable side of ourselves.
