The Destination Between by Micheala Hall
‘The space between’ is everywhere around us, in everything we do, it can be anything but can also be somehow quite intangible at times and hard to recall. It’s a feeling, a place that perhaps isn’t static and a transition. The act of travelling goes hand in hand with this idea, it’s the moving destination between our actual destinations. The part of daily life that often gets overlooked but is instrumental in us getting places, that allows us to be in transit and access that area of the space between.
American artist Alex Vietti captures this space in his piece ‘In Transit’ (2018). The oil painting depicts a portrait view into a subway carriage with three passengers in transit. All three passengers very much seem in their own worlds on they journey, looking into the distance, deep in thought, even seated in different directions. This suggests that they’re all having their own experience of the space in between their destinations, it’s something that is only tangible to them. This idea is mirrored in Vietti’s 2022 drawing ‘Passengers on a Subway’ where we again see a subway carriage which is this time a lot more crowded. Despite this, all passengers are still in the same space of their own zone, experiencing their own journey, distracted by different things.
South African artist Philip Barlow works to capture this moment of the in-between space in a way that is more abstract. He is well known for his technique of capturing images on camera with a heightened exploration of light and colour and translating these into paintings. As stated on his website, Barlow is “interested in the concept of capturing “the moment”, a millisecond in time when everything lines up perfectly. His paintings seek to explore and demonstrate this, rather like a wonderfully composed climax of a symphony, a perfect marriage.” This ‘moment’ is something that we often have during travel, seeing something in passing or transit that can only be experienced at that moment. In his piece ‘Leaving Shibuya’ (date unspecified) we see a blurred array of lights coming from cars, nearby billboards, traffic, and street lights. The abstract nature of this piece allows us while observing to travel to that place of the in-between, driving or being a passenger and experiencing the blaring bright lights at night from the angle of the road. Similarly, in ‘Dusk on Ginza’
(date unspecified) the blaring lights are this time also focused around a zebra crossing and in portrait composition, pointing towards the importance of the road and travel to the experience of the piece.
The usually ‘mundane’ travel we experience in our everyday lives is made far from mundane by these two artists. Despite the contrasts of their pieces in terms of colour, composition and style, Vietti and Barlow demonstrate that there is a special moment in that time in transit that is truly our own, where we exist in the space in between and experience our own version of the journey. Although these pieces are a depiction of their own or others experience, they provide us with a window into this feeling and atmosphere, to help us focus on our own experiences of the destination between.