Elisaveta Conlan (b.2001) is a contemporary painter whose practice explores the theatrics of memory and staged images of history. These paintings draw on their Slavic heritage to make sense and process the world around them. These works interpret found imagery from archived photographs, images of theatres, film stills and pixelated YouTube screenshots. Together, this body of paintings is in dialogue with the cinematic by creating a montage of images, depicting fragmented narratives, collaging history and fiction, playing with the boundary between the two. The work pictorially suggests a fleeting moment or a memory, through its haze or impression of their subjects. The power of curating memory is especially under pressure in the present, and the artist responds with working with images that are otherwise cultural detritus as a means of remembering. Conlan uses painting to reflect and illuminate history in oil by slowly working them onto canvas. Conlan’s paintings are interested in colour and luminosity, alluding to the art historically rich flicker of candlelight, whilst also considering the role of the pixel. Their approach to painting enquires how photographic material can be translated into oil painting. Painting becomes a process of slow looking, digesting coloured squares, JPEGs, and translating glitches and mistakes into painterly interruptions on the picture plane.