Holly Yoshida

'I am an oil painter who paints empty rooms and compostable objects. The house has always been my subject, though what I choose to focus on changes over time. Recently, I have been interested in tiles found in domestic spaces. One body of work leads to another. My last body of work was particularly dark and glossy. With this new project - stemming from my focus on tiles - I wanted to develop paintings that are impossibly white, I wanted to challenge my palette and push colours to their limits of paleness, creating scenes that have ghost-like qualities. I paint interiors because I like to be inside. The psychological comfort I gain from being at home is something I enjoy and value. As a renter, I am constantly moving from house to house, and being able to recreate that comfort in any space is something I have learnt despite new architectural arrangements. I have to project myself and my life into these spaces that could be my potential home. I make the decision to depersonalise spaces, removing traces of human interaction with the intention to unsettle. I have painted these interiors to look bare, for the colours to be more brilliant in an attempt to activate the uncanny energy of what it feels like to be within the spaces. My works are not biographical. I paint interiors of vernacular Australian houses, and viewers may bring their own experiences and histories to inhabit these rooms. I use reference images found on the Rent Network and other realtor sites, searching for houses within my economic bracket; they often look bleak and sterile. Houses and interiors can act like time capsules, eliciting memories that might be individual or shared. A sink will be reminiscent of a family house, or a place lived in one’s twenties, projecting the viewer into differing times and places. The paradox between comfort and eeriness prompts the audience to do a double take.'  Holly Yoshida 2023