Documentation of piece in progress on the walls of my studio space in the Orpheus building in the Belfast school of art. The building is to be demolished in June.
I set myself the parameters of only using black conte crayon to trace, and pencil to transfer marks. Traced marks were only to be from sources present in the MFA studio environment, such as cracks in the floor and plasterwork and stains from spilt paint. The majority of marks come from traced knots in plywood boards. I like their shapes, and on a deeper level am intrigued by how they mark the passage of time and growth of the trees that were used to make the wood.
The tracings are transferred to the wall several times, the marks become fainter each time. Sometimes the pieces of tracing paper are loaded with crayon again to achieve a darker line. It is a fragile and delicate material to use, it often rips when a sharp point of a pencil passes across it.
Walls are a good place to play. And I’m sorry to hear you’ll lose your studio John . . . I hope you find another quickly.
Thanks Wendy. Yes they are building the new art college to be ready for us to move over in September next year. I fear it will be a clinical, sterile and corporate space, lacking the lived in character of the current building. I also fear we wont we able to make a mess!
I love the delicacy of these marks, and the layering.
[…] Orpheus building wall piece in progress, November 2014. […]