My work currently is looking at the relationship between technologies: the camera, computer and photocopier, and traditional forms of representation such as drawing and painting. I have been using unconventional media such as biro pen and tipex to explore this.
Portraiture has always been important to me. I am constantly revisiting it wanting to develop my skills, and learn more about the human face and character.
Alison Lambert is an artist who has inspired me to develop my portraiture and technique. She produces large scale portraits that show great emotion and character. Her technique of layering paper helped me develop my own technique. When drawing portraits from biro pen I often use small pieces of ripped paper to cover “mistakes”, or to create a lighter coloured area to work on. The textured outcome is interesting in itself, but the freedom to be able to use pen worry free enables me to develop my work more easily.
My most recent piece ‘Rod Aiken’ incorporates drawing and photocopying. I am fascinated with the differences between the objective, instantaneous copy produced by machines and the subjective, time-consuming reproductions of humans. To produce this work I interviewed Rod Aiken, who has a direct relationship with photocopying machines in Sheffield Hallam University. Using this approach, I have brought the unknown people behind these machines to the foreground. This is a collaborative piece between myself and the several photocopying machines used to create the piece. The outcome of this work is a stack of roughly 400 sheets displayed on a plinth with the original drawing of Rod Aiken displayed near by. When exhibited, possibly due to the direct link to artist Felix- Gonzalez Torres’s stacks and sweet piles, this piece was flicked through, picked up and depleted.
Lucy Coussell 