Drawing Award 2024
Ada Augustyniak
Memory of a Forest
Jackson's Art Prize 2024, Bankside Gallery 2024
Markers and Pens
Paper
15 x 21 cm
£250
“As an artist and a philosopher, I am not interested in illustrating philosophical ideas, but in finding forms which would let me replace the verbalized philosophical concepts with images. They would stand as ‘visual ideas’ themselves and would be sewn into the structure of the artwork, as if philosophy could not only be done with verbal theories, but also with images. I believe that this kind of visual idea would be more effective in conveying meanings than words. Detached from verbal language, it resonates more in the body than in the mind. For this purpose I have been using the reversed, bleeding through reflection of the drawing created with permanent markers as the main image. I use relatively thin paper (120 gr) intentionally to generate the second image on the other side of the paper, an image that is neither too vague, nor too explicit. The ink goes through the paper by itself and creates the hidden image – the negative of the drawing which literally looks like blood leaking through bandages. It is not an illustration of the hidden layer (of something), it is the hidden layer itself. I use this technique to show visually how human memory works.”