Searching for the wild in London, I realised how in the city the weather and its skies are probably one of the few, yet strong, connection points that we still have with nature. ‘Skies over London’ is part of a big series of skies I did in 2018-19.
Unrolling the sky.
Charcoal on paper.
400 x 300 cm.
2019.
Photo: Art Academy Graduated Show, Haywards Heath.
To make Unrolling the sky, I recorded a video of the sky and projected it onto two rolls of paper of 150 x 400 cm. I rolled and unrolled it while trying to capture the with charcoal the sky's movement and atmosphere.
The idea of this piece is that by extending its width, it could continue forever. I could draw an infinite roll and it would never be the same.
Photo: Liberty Special Markets Office, LSM Awards 2020, London.
Skies over London.
Ink on silk, oil on unstretched canvas.
2018.
Photographs from Configuration Group Show, Former Newington Library Gallery, London.
I hung silk paintings from the ceiling and created a landscape of smoky windows. The transparency and changing quality of the paintings handed the viewer the important role of completing the artwork through their movement, evolving while going through the space.
I reused discarded wood and stretchers to evoke the feeling of the circle of nature, juxtaposing the silk delicacy with its preciousness and fragility. The ink medium expressed the more ephemeral elements of nature: the weather in constant movement and change. In contrast, I painted the sun with oil on an unstretched canvas to embody density, warmth and stability as well as isolation.
Photosynthesis.
Oil on canvas.
182 x 130 cm.
2019.
Fragment of urban sky I.
Charcoal on paper.
42 x 60 cm.
2019.
In the city, the weather and its skies become of the few, yet strong, connection points that we still have with nature. But in the city there are not many clean clear building-free skies.
For these series of drawings I cut away the buildings that didn't allow me to see an open sky.
Fragment of urban sky II.
Charcoal on paper.
60 x 42cm.
2019.
Fragment of urban sky III.
Charcoal on paper.
95 x 68 cm.
2019.