Rex Southwick’s paintings reveal the “invisible workforce” that build our most desirable homes

“At the crux of my work are considerations of ownership, domestic spaces and the environment,” begins Rex Southwick. “These three topics tend to be intertwined within my paintings, which, despite appearing on the surface as simple depictions of expensive homes, actually attempt to highlight the disparity that exists between these spaces and the workers who build them.” In Rex’s ongoing body of work, titled Querencia, we are shown the heavy manual labour and long hours that go into constructing the kinds of houses that fill our social feeds and dreams. The modernist mansions with immaculately landscaped gardens and large swimming pools that many of us aspire to occupy are shown semi-realised and half-built – a maze of wires, cables, and building materials that give the spaces a decidedly empty feeling.

And yet, as the title of the series attests to, these are the settings we gravitate towards. “Querencia is a Spanish phrase which at its core means a space where you feel most comfortable and draw energy from,” explains Rex. “For example, in bullfighting, a bull will often circle the ring until it finds a place where it feels safe and strong – this is its querencia.” Similarly, humans search for specific environments that revitalise them and give them a sense of belonging. Often, they not only search for these environments, but also construct them, creating homes that reflect their aspirations and desires. In this digital age where minimalism rules and social media pushes us toward certain realities, these desires take the shape of modern, light-filled dwellings situated in earthy settings and warm climates.

As such, the Mediterranean with its sun-drenched landscapes is fertile ground for creating these “Instagrammable”, Hockney-esque homes. In Querencia, Rex’s source material is composed of personal photographs of building sites in the Balearic Islands, as well as photographs provided by local construction companies. In the resulting paintings, we can observe two symbols of status that have pride of place in the garden: exotic plants (often non-native to their surroundings) and swimming pools. The latter was of particular interest to Rex during the making of this project. “I wanted to focus on the ideals that pools represent, their relationship to the Roman Empire, and how these classical notions have retained their relevance and prevalence,” he says.

Positioned alongside these prize possessions are their creators – the workers who construct the pools and plant the plants. Their existence within the space stands in stark contrast to the essence of Querencia, with its connotations of comfort and belonging. Despite having built these homes from the ground up, there is an obvious allusion to the idea that they are not “at home” within these spaces. “Their inclusion in these paintings highlights the disparity in aspiration and needs between worker and owner,” says Rex. “The labourers involved in the building projects are often an invisible workforce made up of immigrants, and I play on this invisibility.” He goes on: “Unrevolutionary yet apt is the notion that nothing is as it seems on the surface – this is very much the case with the occupants and workers of the environments that I paint.”