I work in a process-based way with line, repetition and surface as my central concerns. The materials and actions I use have some connection to the domestic, agrarian routines and rituals of previous generations of my family as well as to the more universal human need to leave a trace and reveal a truth. I work by drawing, stitching or folding lines onto or into a surface. I am excited by the minutest variations of material and procedure that produce ‘difference’ through repetition.
Mapping of space and marking of time are both important in this series of drawings. I live on the same land that was worked by four different generations. Hence I was looking at old maps of the farm and began researching changing field shapes, different ploughing methods (‘gathering’ and ‘casting’ being two methods of interest) and became fascinated by the folds and refolding of the maps and how it drew me to the potential of 'surface.’ I read about the archaeology of the area, and was fascinated by the dichotomy between the act of ploughing the land both revealing and destroying evidence of previous human activity/settlements, and how some archaeological sites are revealed through changing light and moisture levels in the soil. The seen and the unseen are held in the same surface.
Ploughing is just one of many examples of repetitive work that I have always been familiar with. Labour that is often overlooked, the evidence of it is transient, made invisible by the insistence of time, by the next layer of activity. I like the idea of making a labour intensive drawing process that leaves an image that is barely there.
