Huseyin Sami taps into the senses through an intimate and physical engagement with his chosen medium of painting. House paint — plastic in liquid form — is poured; as it sets, the artist pushes and pulls the plastic skins. A gesture remains of tension from his unguessable innovative and experimental processes. At once a final piece and a documentation of performance, the artworks are slick and glossy, painting reduced to an abstracted form.

Sami often works intuitively, choosing from house paints. The hues and luminous sheen connect to all those familiar with this everyday medium. Entering the domestic and intimate for something that feels personal thanks to the readymade with its pre-existing connotations. Yet Sami transforms them; fetishising, contrasting black against silver, with his signature pastels ever present and always underpinning the domestic palette.

The processes Sami employs to produce his paintings conceal evidence of the laborious brush work that goes into making the works. Hidden in the resulting skins are the gestural marks for layers of thickness and thinness, texture and movement. Sami’s connection with the medium is intimate, one entirely material-based, tapping into the visceral space for a conscious relationship of physicality. With multiple skins combined, his compositions are liquid and slippery. The audience are deceived by their ease and comfort, unaware of the physical labour invested in their creation.

Sami’s works are an archive of sorts. They are memories. Of the artist’s hands moving the medium; of the effort. The tactility of human touch. You want to touch it. But you can’t. A game of hidden desires as light reflects in the seductive folds, rippling when moving around the room for a charge of energy. The material beckons you closer, the strength of the hand reflected in the taunt skins. He plays on the desire to know more, seducing and luring, but at the last moment withdrawing his advance.

Written by Emma-Kate Wilson