Gorganism

GORGANISM, 2007 | graphite, dirt, pigments, charcoal, earth, grit, sand on paper | 1740 x 1740 mm

As John Ruskin said, “All art is but dirtying the paper delicately”. In this case not so delicately as I transform a blank sheet of paper into what resembles a rusty metal sheet, which also takes on a sheen. Through vigorous action, the original drawing is completely obliterated leaving, where the paper has been worn away, the impression of a heart with its aorta and pulmonary vein snaking from it like snakes from a gorgon’s head. Like with the Gorgon myth, where living tissue is transformed into stone, here, paper is transformed through the action of drawing.