Title:
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Personal mapping : memories and imaginary maps
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The discussion in this report considers the framework to my research, my developing
methodology and an evaluating synopsis of my professional practice as an artist during
my doctorate period.
My painting research is approached in the following ways:
First is the use of line, as an expressive and visual medium, that is distinct in my work.
When I come to the need for pictorial representation, line is perhaps the visual element
with the most extensive use in my practice.
Second is the development of mapping, viewed as a grid of drawn lines and the use of
cartographical language in the drawing practice.
Third is the deconstruction of the map towards an imaginary mapped place.
Fourth is the concept of the thread in relation to my early memories as child of a
seamstress. Thread visually represented by line is influential in my recent art practice.
Fifth is doodling and its role into my painting practice.
The sixth element is the composition of images that create visual juxtapositions. This is a
painting practice that most of the time is an issue of my artistic research.
Finally there is my collaboration with other artists and in particular with Group Capsule,
my professional practice and the experience I have received participating in a number of
exhibitions, art projects, residencies and in teaching.
These issues have been at the core of my debate over the past five years and they have
played a crucial role in my visual development. It is these issues that I have explored in
the context of autobiographical as well as socio cultural references.
My current research has been to exploring the processes that give the artist's mark it's
meaning in particular the development of the visual reading of cartography. My recent
research is a logical extension of ten years interest in image making, particularly
exploring the use of line as a way of expression. The changes in my current body of work
are developments of my earlier practice.
During my practice as a painter deconstruction has been one of the crucial issues. I have a
great commitment to drawing and throughout the last ten years the images I have created
come from a deconstruction of the outline of form (human figure, a complex of geometric
shapes, the organic form of a map, the satellite picture of a city etc). (illustration 30)
This is an ongoing process of reworking and redrawing the silhouette of the initial
stimulus. I believe that such deconstruction requires an understanding of the original
constructed form. Hence drawing has always been vital to and an integral part of my
painting practice.
I am sometimes asked, "What is your objective? " and this I cannot truthfully answer. I
work "from" something rather than "towards" something. It is a process of discovery and
I will not impose a convenient dogma, however attractive.
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