Riley’s careful ordering of coloured and white bands in this painting establishes a sense of rhythm and movement. White is not a neutral element for Riley, and here she sets it against the blocks of colour to create the intervals of the title. Like many of her works, Intervals 2 is part of a larger series. The artist made the first of the paintings in late 2018. While these works draw on ideas she had explored before, Riley developed them in a completely new way. The Intervals series therefore marked a departure for her, while continuing her long engagement with sensation and the physical act of looking.