The following is an extract from the report I wrote from my recent first group critique in 11 years.I showed this piece and several others to the MFA class and tutors:
“I had mounted 3 map tracing drawings on canvas at eye level on the wall in my studio space. There were old maps of Belfast on the floor and tracings that I had made from them and transferred to canvas. A piece of wood with drill holes and various marks and indentations leant against the adjacent wall. There was an old piece of work on MDF that I had transformed into something new as I drilled, scored, nailed into and cut into it with various implements.
The group gave me their initial reactions to the pieces presented. The map based drawings on canvas were interpreted as resembling veins, graffiti scrawled on school desks, freshly cut hairs on the floor of a barber shop, or colour inverted ariel photographs of cities at night. Many people realized that the conte crayon marks originated as lines on the maps, others did not. It was speculated greater ambiguity in interpretation may have happened had the source material maps not been present. Stuart read the marks as being akin to the actions of an obsessive compulsive disorder sufferer or the cutting of flesh by one who self-harms.
Some of those present picked up on a certain kinetic feel in the work, a sense of rhythmic repetition in some marks.”
John Macormac 