Artist Statement

Straight Lines I consists of oil pastel on tracing paper, with a video projection. This performance piece is an enquiry into the formal qualities of repetitive mark making. When creating this performance, I enforced certain boundaries upon myself to explore this. The strategy involved myself, on a rolling chair, moving along the paper. As I moved along each side of the paper, I used both hands to create straight lines and did not allow myself to life the pastels from the paper until the end of the line.

This process of creating through full-bodied drawings in bilateral movements, was informed by the bodily actions of Tony Orrico’s Penwald Drawings. Orrico follows a strict strategy in each of his performances and I attempted to establish similar boundaries in my own work. His works are also a feat of endurance as he follows his boundaries over many hours. My own performance also became an endurance piece, yet a less time consuming one than Orrico.

I explored this concept multiple times with different bilateral movements but feel that only the straight lines performance was successful, and yet, still unfinished.

Straight Lines II is an extension of the first performance work. Again, it consists of oil pastel on tracing paper with video projection. The original strategy and boundaries were followed again, but I then took the finished work into a different direction. The work was cut into squares, overlapped and then drawn with again. The video installation was the primary concern of the second project.

I still feel that my exploration is incomplete. I think that repetition is important to my art practice and needs to be investigated further.

It is to be noted that the other artists I considered for my work are Morgan O’Hara and Charlie Ford. However, I believe Orrico's performance drawings had the most impact on my own work.