Encounter

During my first residency at VCCA in fall 2022 I experienced drawing as a mode of living. Drawing can range from relentless struggling to weightless flying. My project Encounter (2024/25) combines an artists’ book (above) and a series of works on paper (studio view with drafts).

The studio view shows drafts of the series of works on paper (soon to be published): Embossed forms with a transparent, yet absent and present quality will inhabit the sheets and encounter black watercolor forms, shaping them. The idea of using spatial fragments to press forward was sparked by lines of a poem the American writer Jon Pineda shared with me during our residencies VCCA: “[…] the heart / pressing syllables against the dark.”

The sequencing and moving in time and space across the pages of the artists’ book (photos above) refer back to the processuality of drawing. The transparent Japanese paper lets drawings shine through. The following drawings are being forshadowed and new drawings, which do only exist through layered pages, are brought forward. The unbound accordion structure allows to unfold the pages and to lay open the reverse which refers to the mirroring in printmaking. This also reveals that the white forms are drawn on the back.