A new series of paintings continues Haines' ongoing exploration of the dark, refracted reflections from the black mirrors of our digital devices—images that blur the boundaries of the picture plane. By translating this visual language into both drawing and painting, he navigates subjects that resist clear definition—elusive, fleeting, and always in flux. These works create nuanced spaces that challenge the increasingly polarized binaries of contemporary life, suggesting that what is depicted is not anchored in a fixed place but instead occupies an ambiguous, shifting terrain.
A painting of a statue of the ancient Greek goddess Demeter, located in the British Museum, also appears to tremor. The statue and its surroundings seem restless, visually vibrating, refracted. This translation from carved stone to painted image animates the otherwise inert statue, while Demeter—the goddess of the harvest and fertility—evokes contemporary anxieties surrounding the natural world. The statue’s instability is further emphasized by the ongoing debate over its repatriation, with the Turkish government calling for its return to Anatolia.