Natalya Hughes: Looking Twice

Overview

Natalya Hughes' Looking Twice is a tiny selection of her work. Only four pieces hang on the wall. Of those, two oversize pieces dominate the space. And it's these two which make such a small show so easily worth dropping into. Hughes has recently moved from straight up painting to a preoccupation with pattern, carpet and wallpaper. It's a good move.

Looking Cute splays fabric with Japanese folds over a broad wooden base. If you look closely, you're just looking at a painting of folds in cloth. But standing in front of the piece, drowning in its size, its colour and strong, clean lines feels like looking into the mouth of an alien face which would have been pretty comfortable in the original Watchmen comic or War of the Worlds. Its terrible symmetry wouldn't has something of a Beastman wall to it and the fabrics have a stark, colourful richness which would have worked for Florence Broadhurst. Its easy to get lost in its alien glare, but there's also a strong element of the Japanese Ukiyo-e woodblock style. Assuming your everyday, domestic Japanese scene also contains scary bug-like monster eyes.

And where Looking Cute is strong, Looking Shy is more powerful still. Looking for all the world like a cushion-clad kendo practitioner taking off a fluffy helmet, the oversize piece's scale and perfect rendering of fold and pattern take you away convincingly to this strange, pillow-dominated world. Like the best of Beastman's work, Hughes' larger pieces manage to combine simple colour and symmetry to create a feeling of overwhelming awe. It's not a bad trick.

Also hanging are the smaller Looking Weighed Down (Again) and an abstract piece, but it's the bigger pieces that make this show worth the visit. A small selection, I wouldn't to recommend trekking across town just to get here, but if you're ambling around Chippendale or the City Road side of Redfern, it's well worth a closer look.

The Commercial is open Wednesday to Saturday, 11-6. Image: Looking Cute by Natalya Hughes.