Drawing the Memories Left by Disaster...Richard Hearns’ ‘Pompeii’ [fn Art Clip]

[Financial News] "What I am interested in is what is left behind: traces and marks, absence, and the human impulse to remember and resilience."Richard Hearns, who presented his work through Artbooth Gallery at Kiaf SEOUL earlier this month, explained in a recent interview with Financial News that these were the ideas he explored in his painting ‘Pompeii.’ Hearns, an Irish painter born in Lebanon, submitted the work to ‘Ground Zero 360—Remembrance,’ a memorial exhibition marking the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, held at the New York City Fire Museum.■The Memory of Disaster and the Passage of Time in the Landscape‘Pompeii’ began with the fragility of structures built by humans and the memories left behind in places. The connection between the disaster that struck the ancient city and 9/11 lies not so much in the events themselves as in what remained afterward. "I am not trying to depict 9/11," he said. "Through color, surface, and gesture, I wanted to approach absence and resilience."
Rather than explain the tragedy or offer an answer, he aims to create a place where viewers can pause for a moment. "Painting can transcend language," Hearns said. "Sometimes the deepest emotions reside in what is felt but left unsaid."
This approach is also reflected in the way he engages with landscapes. Hearns lives and works in The Burren in County Clare, Ireland, where he encounters limestone shaped over vast stretches of time and traces of human presence left between the rocks. Instead of transferring the landscape directly onto the canvas, he allows the sensations experienced through his body there and the power of nature to permeate the painting.
The process of layering paint incorporates time spent covering, revealing, erasing, and returning. "As in a landscape, something that was there before remains," he explained. "Rather than reproducing a place, I am trying to understand and convey what it means to live in a place that holds so much time."
His solo exhibition ‘No Ruined Stones,’ which explores geological time alongside human life, runs through October 3 at Cadogan Gallery in London, United Kingdom.
■Abstract Forms Shaped by Bodily Movement and ColorHis experience training in martial arts is also embedded in his brushwork. His awareness of balance, weight, breathing, and movement has developed into the physical language of his paintings. Each morning, he moves his body, writes, and meditates before beginning work, but once he starts painting, he surrenders to intuition.
He does not decide on the colors in advance, either. The same limestone can appear gray, blue, or almost purple depending on the weather and the time of day. Green intensified by rain may disappear into the landscape under different light. Hearns focuses less on individual colors than on the relationships between them. A subdued color, he explained, can suddenly make another color shine.
Hearns also expressed hope for a connection with Korean audiences. Although his work is not based on Eastern traditions, he believes viewers can find a shared intuition in simplicity and movement, silence and gesture. "The most successful paintings are the ones that are felt deeply," he said.
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