Week Fourteen | Sarsen
In the Thursday session two weeks ago, Jonathan played a video on Lubaina Himid and I was struck by some of the things she said. One thing was: “I made 100 works on paper just to learn everything I could about what the sea does, what the sand, water and air do”. She then uses this learning to inform the way she understands politics of identity. This statement dislodged some concerns I have about repetition and dissociation of landscape and self. The ancient Sarsen stones on the Dene where I live in Lockeridge, Wiltshire have caught my interest recently and I would like to do some drawings with and from them. I have started some frottage drawings and drawings in charcoal and ink.
I am continuing to create drawings as a large part of my practice, alongside painting and the two strands seem to be mutually reflective. The charcoal landscapes I have been making as part of my drawing sessions on Zoom have greatly informed how to move forward with my painting.
Frottage
Whilst rubbings seem a bit obvious and not really scratching the ‘big imagination’ itch I am feeling right now, it’s a well trodden path for a reason. Discussion with Jonathan in my Tutorial 2 helped give me permission to pursue this line of enquiry even though I feel some hesitation. It will be what I make of it. I am considering the layers of these drawings and monotypes and considering how they might inform my large drawing for the Interim Show in March. I haven’t documented my first experiments very well and I need to do better with my second attempt. Lessons learnt from experimental drawings:
Document better
Find a way to make the substrate more robust
More creation and less ruination
Consider how to modify the scale to fit the idea, maybe it didn’t work just because it was too big?
These marks are my first attempts at frottage (in about 30 years!) and I love the marks. They relate to the stones and not to me but that was the intention. I like that they did not require any decision making and are simply automated but this does not really relate to my objectives of creating a language of my own grief. It does however speak to the idea above around Lubaina Himid’s attitude of making as much work as possible that helps to understand the landscape. I immediately had the sense that I wanted to ‘use’ the frottage marks in some way, which makes me wonder whether they aren’t ‘enough’ or if they just don’t feel mine yet. I started experimenting with collaging them onto some old, experimental canvases, each 24x18cm.
I like the outcomes very much but I am not sure what they are teaching me or how to move forward with them, only that there is a degree of satisfaction in having done them and the feeling of directionless curiosity. I will continue to experiment and see what becomes of this line of enquiry, if anything.
Ancient Landscapes
Although I spend a lot of time in the landscapes near me on my daily dog walks I am becoming more mindful of what the landscape means to me and which elements seem most relevant to my work. In addition to the stone rubbings I am most attracted to the forests nearby - the West Woods are right on my doorstep but the ancient oaks of Savernake forest are also a regular haunt for morning walks. Many of the trees are 400 years old and some up to 700 years old, putting into sharp focus our contemporary notions of permanence and those things which are disposable and replaceable.
