Drawing Set

The Prophet and the Bees - Exhibition at Shakes Galerie, Prague

My second solo exhibition, held in Shakes Galerie, U Lužického semináře 10, Praha, from 15.1.2010 to 15.2.2010. I had my brown notebooks on display, and unfortunately (to put it mildly) one of them went missing during the exhibit. Nine months of annotated research, writing, and drawings for my upcoming MA gone all at once. That'll teach me the folly of not backing everything up online...

The series of large (~6' x 2') works after which the show was titled are mixed media monoprints / drawings based on the idea of pareidolia, or seeing patterns in random stimuli. They are process-works, printed with ink-soaked scraps of paper, which leave a variety of traces. These traces are built up into layers of texture, which begin to suggest forms. I then use a variety of hand-media to bring out the forms I 'read-into' the textures. Perhaps because of the nature of the semi-dreaming process I use, or perhaps simply because of my preoccupation with mythology and symbols, the forms which emerge from this process tend to be resonant with linked symbolism and implied narrative. I then add handwritten and transfer-type words and letters that spontaneously occur to me when staring at the images. The forms and texts are added to slowly over a number of weeks, and the creation of the four works in the series overlapped, leading to a spontaneous 'intertextuality.' In this way the works become a non-linear myth cycle, with a variety of narrative paths between the figures and objects.

In order, the work shown in the photographs is:

"Judge" (2009) rope, brass tripod, electrical socket.

"Hi-Viz" (2009) found board, highlighters, pencils, correction fluid, drawing ink.

"The Prophet and the Bees" and "Perpetual Apocalypse" (2009) , MÅLA paper, drawing ink, highlighters, pencils, markers, correction fluid, fluoro price stickers, transfer type, fire.

"Plague of Language" and "Skin, or the rubble at Babel" (2009)[materials as prev.].

"Night Map" (2009) found paper, drawing ink, GROG graffiti ink, markers, highlighters, pencils, correction fluid, fluoro price stickers, transfer type, fire, jigsaw piece.

Many thanks to Natalia Vasquez Photography for the images.

The Prophet and the Bees series: Details One

The Prophet and the Bees series: Details Two

Monkey Table

Monkey Table is the first complete sculpture from a series of 'zoomorphic' works I intend to make, highlighting the ways in which objects can be read as characters or creatures. It is constructed mostly from found materials I came across on walks through Prague.

Fluoro on the Road

Tiny Worker Says, Tiny Microscope Says, and the Eisegetics Institute ashtray

Found Paintings - Slavoince

Opposites

Two knots, one 15m of white poly-rope and one 15m of seagrass dyed with Indian ink.

The Magic Golden Knot

Picture frames, fluoro price stickers, fishing line, and a magic golden knot. A tribute to the cheap special effects I grew up on. The mysterious spinning energy in a cube, that powered a ship or connected to another dimension. (The golden knot spins in its container.) I remember my parents explaining that Buck Rogers and Dr. Who were frighteningly real in the 70s, that often they would have to hide behind the sofa, almost too scared to watch.

Empty Signs

Cobble Puzzle

Cobbles in the streets laid by hand like typesetting with lead. Printers' proof marks in fluoro. Taken up, reshuffled and relaid at random, like a typetray dropped on the floor.