For Hemer, the act of destabilising his compositions relates to the way in which we consume imagery. As he notes, the continual bombardment of visual material creates a complex and often mis-matched understanding of both history and the places that surround us. Alongside the paintings in the exhibition, he is also showing video works that further explore the melding of organic and inorganic materials. Here, globules of paint spin in the sky to a soundtrack of birdsong and passing cars, recorded by the artist in situ. Once again, our concept of time and place is muddled, forcing us to concentrate less on what we are seeing and more on the bodily experience – how the composition, textures and depths affect our perspective and physical orientation. 

Even the title of the exhibition is a mashup: birch, maple and oak are the species of tree that Hemer’s hay fever app identified him as being most allergic to while ‘post rococo’ playfully invokes the idea of an evolved history. The irony, of course, is that in attempting to capture a landscape for contemporary times, a kind of no-place or everywhere, Hemer relies on traditional techniques (and being outdoors) as well as specific temporal conditions. The warm golden, red and peachy tones of this latest series are the result of both a particular light quality and environment. Nevertheless, the resultant works, in their shifting, shimmering hybridity, still manage to evade the trap – or is it deception? – of representation. They are portraits if not of the present moment, then for it.