Sentinels: Charlie Boothright

‘Where there is a wound, there is a subject’ - Roland Barthes

General Assembly is pleased to present Sentinels, a solo exhibition of works by

Charlie Boothright. In the first presentation of her Sentinels series, Boothright

explores the vertical as a symbol of time, transformation and mortality. The artist

conceives of each work as a presence, standing guard over the past and gesturing

towards the future. The vertical axis acting as a direct channel into an outburst of

expression, offering but a hint of the expansive world inside. Each work is

simultaneously guarded and open, exposing an open wound, a scar of history and a

rupture in the painter’s dimension.

Drawing influence from the Vienna Actionists, the works on exhibit are performative

in their essence - their physicality embodying fragments of the artist’s body, like shed

skin that has been carefully preserved. The vertical axis connects the roots of our

earliest existence on the earth to the crown, reaching towards an endless future;

merging new hopes with lingering remnants of what has been. Inspired by Hans

Josephsons’ cranial sculptures and the weathered formations of Australia’s Twelve

Apostles, these works occupy the anthropomorphic plane. Rendered in a scale that

is familiar but imposing, each work commemorates nature and history, like a

headstone honouring a forgotten past.

Despite the paintings fixed vertical orientation, Boothright’s Sentinels exists in a

state of perpetual reinvention, and the works’ ingenious use of materials and

explosive sense of motion, imbue them with an expansive aura, not limited by time or

space. Indeed, the artist conceives of her works as transcending linear time, instead

occupying what she calls, Painting Time. In Painting Time, a work is never “finished”

in a formal sense, but is instead one piece of a tableau that expands and develops,

as Boothright creates new works in the series. The artist’s use of this unconventional

timescale invites the viewer to experience these works as regenerating, atemporal

presences, created from energy of the past to stand as a familiar yet mysterious

reflections of the present.

In this sense, Sentinel reflects our innate desire to rise above the earth, and

Boothright’s reflection on how we are in constant flux. The emotional landscape we

tread is ever changing, and our modern lifestyle, so driven by technology and

efficiency, encourages the severance of our ties with ourselves and the landscape; in an attempt to quell the deep-seated anxiety of our fate underground.