Body-Drawings
Charcoal on paper
The body-drawings series are body imprints on paper, created with pressed charcoal in black and red pigment. This project was achieved with a strong devotion and feeling. The traces left on the paper recall presence, legacy, but also confinement and would be translated as well as a Self-portrait. The direct contact with material such as charcoal bares strong meaning itself and combined with the characteristics of the body traces, it turns into a vivid, dynamic, full of accidentally depicted symbols, record of memory - of both physical and emotional state.
150x244, Charcoal on paper
The first part of the project consists of series of charcoal drawings completed through body movement, performed exclusively on the floor.
It was executed through the body sunk into the charcoal dust spread over a big sheet of paper. Nothing of those compositions could be really planned or structured, may be this is what makes them authentic.
The movement fluctuates between slow and quick sequences, elegant and temperament movements, turns and slips, the gestures are wide, uncontroled at times, but this is an 'improvised choreography' familiar to the body. Therefore, the signs found on the paper raised curious analytical discussions about whether or not it is possible exact symbolic translation to be found in the patterns and signs left, unintentionally recalling images from the subconscious. Such theory is hardly to be proved, but I argue that the style and manner of certain person's gestures reflects very distinctive and individual features.
150x189, Charcoal on paper
A short video shows a record of the performance. The figure is almost completely disguised under the charcoal cloth. The movements are flowing, graceful, syncopated, sometimes they alternate between slow motion and rapid change of the rythm and intensity of the tencion.
Body-drawings
Red pigmen on paper
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This second part of the project is reversed -the body is covered with red pigment ansdcrowls over the watery sheet of paper. The effect resembles water-colour, the traces are not so distinguished, an abstract composition is scetched, but at the same time the body is confined there again leaving its traces, shapes, and movement memories.
Anna Mendieta
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Anna Mendieta Silhouette series had a great influence on my interest in exploring the subject of the Body and the Body-drawings. Known for her 'earth-body' work, she is focused on the spiritual and physical connection to Earth. Implementations of the four elements of nature are found in her pieces in themes that explore feminism, violence, life, death, identity, place and belonging. Her Body-traces are somehow ritualistic - the presence left in the silhouettes makes them look almost alive figures of fire, mud, soul, or pigment. Altough the human figure is recognized, they also look like different people, with different strength and qualities, lying into the Earth's embrace.
Yves Klein
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Yves Klein, famous for his series of Blue-prints of female bodies, covers naked women with paint using them as ‘human paintbrushes’ to make his Anthropometry paintings'. My body-drawings are influenced by his approach, however, the traces I leave with movement reveal another dimension of the performance in this context. They are saturted with the memory of the ;duration', 'the happaning', the transition between 'calm and dynamic state', contrasting the still 'stamps' of his models.
