Painting Reflection 26/10/23

During the painting workshop, I experimented with a plethora of erasure techniques, based on Brian Dillon's essay 'The Revelation of Erasure' 2006. Physically removing and erasing features of found imagery confirmed his hypothesises that erasing always leaves a trace behind, nothing is ever completely removed. It was interesting to compare the physical process of erasure, leaving a literal mark on the page, to deleting in a technological sense, which we deem as absolute, however, there is still background/meta information engrained in the technology so there is an archaeological trail left behind. By removing key aspects of a piece, we focus on the absence of what's gone, the presence of whats left, and the symbiotic relationship between them, as depending on the type of erasure, one could accentuate the other more intensely.

I was really inspired by Johannes Kahrs' 'I Finally Accept Fate' 2002, making me eager to focus on highlighting other forms of non-verbal communication, especially the hands, through erasure in my work, so I took found images from magazines and erased the excess information, either by cutting it out or painting over it, and observed how the narrative changed, letting the leftover information construct its own. I experimented with different ways of erasing - different translucencies of paint, to see how this effected the ambiguity of the narrative.

Once piece was really successful - I cut out the piano from a pianist, so the man's hands are just reaching mid-air, which I find find fascinatingly ambiguous, almost as if he's searching for tactile objects in the dark, mirroring the viewer searching for the original narrative and any new scenarios their mind creates. I first experimented with a black background to give this illusion of darkness, however, I thought the white background left more ambiguity to what he's reaching for, reinforcing the purpose of erasure. I wanted to develop this further, reinterpreting the hands again with no context, and was inspired by Robert Lucander's use of wood as a background, so I went to the wood-shop and stapled together two uneven pieces of scrap wood - I liked how the top piece being longer mirrored the different lengths of the arms/hands, reinforcing the reach. I used charcoal so the outlines of the hands would be defined, and a chiaroscuro technique like Kahrs to heighten the drama of what he's reaching for. I even used various techniques of erasure on the wood itself to draw the hands as I scraped the top layer of charcoal off with a craft knife when my rubber wasn't strong enough. Once this was complete, I felt it needed another piece of wood that it could reach for, so I added a square block on the other end of the wall, making the wall part of the piece, including the space around the artwork into it, which I feel also reinforces the ambiguity with this huge blank space, giving more space for the viewer to think. I find it fascinating how removing features from a tiny cutout from a magazine can develop into a sustained piece of work.

Overall, when erasing elements, I really thought about which elements constructed the narrative and how, so I could therefore work backwards to subvert and manipulate it, but I also enjoyed being adventurous and taking risks to be surprised by the end result, as I loved creating undetermined outcomes, assessing it once the erasure has occurred, as this allows for a plethora of connotations to be made which can therefore be worked into further.

One experiment really challenged me - I tried to erase all the features from the model that made her 'beautiful' - from her luscious lips, ocean eyes, pixie nose, defined cheekbones, shaped eyebrows, until I was left with her skin, which was also flawless, and removing this meant I was left with nothing - how could I convey my investigation of beauty with no physical outcome? The features cut out looked quite mask-like, accentuating whats erased over the features present, which is when I realised the genius of Aziz and Cucher in their Dystopia Series 1995 in Dillon's essay, as they erased these fetishised features by blurring, therefore making them inconspicuous, accentuating the other features of the face. I therefore wanted the focus of my artwork to be on the process of erasing the features that define her beauty, and the conscious decision-making involved in this, filtered by my own beauty standards - this made me question whether different people would cut out different features based on their own beauty ideals, which could become an interesting interactive/performance piece. The artwork focussing on the process can be supported by Sol Le Witt's retrospective that "the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the piece...the execution is a perfunctory affair" - this is a sort of erasure itself, erasing the physical medium of artwork to show ideas.

Peer feedback on the wooden piece:

“I like how you managed to translate the notion of something being missing but in a different context on your panel wood piece, and the way that you captured the light, and the sense of realism is incredible in your charcoal drawing”.

“I like the kind of naturalness of the wood being irregular, and how the hand itself is not connected to anything”.

My peer feedback affirmed my intensions on playing with erasure to construct a new narrative for the hands as they're disconnected, so I'm glad this translated through. I also hadn't considered the naturalness of the wood - I think I subconsciously accepted and embraced the grains when drawing.

To conclude, this erasure workshop has really made me investigate how I construct a piece of art - instead of creating and fabricating straight away, I can explore what can be removed from the world, whether this be physical features or perhaps colour. Its definitely made me more accustomed to explore and think about whats absent and present when looking at a piece of art too. I now also understand the link between collage and painting - both are a dialogue/process that require similar decision making, and are both great starting points for the other when creating future artwork.

Reflection

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