ashar

oil on a wooden panel 30x30x5cm
Neither Here Nor There is a contemplative composition that dwells in ambiguity and quiet tension. The board is layered with soft gradients of blue, white, and grey, creating a misty, atmospheric field that feels both expansive and intimate. At the centre, a white rectangular form stands like a silent monolith—neither fully present nor absent—anchoring the viewer in a space that resists definition.
Beneath it, five muted teal squares stretch horizontally, like stepping stones or coded fragments, suggesting a path or rhythm that leads nowhere and everywhere. On the left, faint black markings—resembling handwritten symbols—hover like forgotten messages or distant echoes. These marks add a layer of mystery, hinting at language or memory just beyond reach.
The painting’s title resonates deeply with its visual language: Neither Here Nor There is a meditation on liminality, on the spaces between meaning and silence, form and dissolution. It invites the viewer to linger in the in-between, where clarity is elusive, and beauty lies in the unresolved.

I use oil pastels, oil sticks, markers, scrapers, charcoal, pigment sticks, newspaper, and graphite, as well as gold and silver leaf, to make marks whichever fits the moment. UV protected, signed on the back. The work is on a plywood panel and is ready to hang. No further framing is needed.

There’s a place I go, inside myself,
Where nobody else can be,
And none of my friends can tell it’s there –
Nobody knows but me.
It’s hard to explain the way it feels,
Or even where I go.
It isn’t a place in time or space,
But once I’m there, I know.
It’s tiny, it’s shiny, it can’t be seen,
But it’s big as the sky at night …
I try to explain and it hurts my brain,
But once I’m there, it’s right.
There’s a place I know inside myself,
And it’s neither big nor small,
And whenever I go, it feels as though
I never left at all. by Dennis Lee

Ref: 22/06

Location: secret