Nathaniel Pimlott
Station Approach
11 – 25 June 2010
Stables Gallery, Green Templeton College, 43 Woodstock Road, Oxford

Nathaniel Pimlott has been living in Oxford for the last year, spending time in the nature reserve beyond Abingdon Road; the results constitute his first solo exhibition, in Green Templeton College, a discrete graduate enclave down the Woodstock road. There are no birds or animals in his new paintings however, nor in the accompanying short film, that slices together white noise from train lines, the motorway and a weir.  From his particular quiet spot – a bridge, safe from passers-by – Pimlott has been observing the city’s orbit of traffic. Opening with a neat description of the railway tracks, the following paintings scan the view, opening up, blurring, switching focus: branches meet branch lines, fields dilate into sky, funny little vehicles tootle along. Around a corner, the pictures darken, turning to the the motorway at night, where headlights point ahead in odd little triangles. Painted on the reverse of an abandoned road sign, one of these shows cars dashing onwards, nowhere in particular. Pimlott is viewing Oxford itself in reverse.

Article by Dorothy Feaver
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