Exploring the Use of Graphite Powder and a Group Crit.

I have begun exploring the use of graphite powder in my frottage pieces in my endeavour to create work with the most direct impression of the landscape it was inspired by possible. With graphite powder I am able to make marks using my hands by scattering the powder fairly evenly onto a piece of canvas laid over a rock then using my hands to map out the texture of the rock beneath, rubbing the graphite powder into the fabric and creating a visible impression of the rock in a similar manner to when using a pencil. This technique allows for a much more direct impression of the rock due to the tactile nature of this process in comparison to creating a rubbing using a pencil, a more detached method of mark making. With this technique my hands are the pencil.

The overall appearance of this graphite powder frottage piece was quite charged, almost emitting energy and motion in a manner reminiscent of a Jackson Pollock drip painting. The canvas looked as if it had had the graphite powder thrown at it due to the patches of darker grey surrounded by smaller flecks of colour, where bumps in the rock had been picked up, and the lighter areas where less graphite was applied.

I explored both wet and dry application of graphite powder – dry following the method above and wet by pouring water over the scattered powder before rubbing my hands over it. The dry application gives the more effective rubbing, as the water caused the graphite to simply cover the whole area in a solid grey tone instead of picking up on the small variations in texture on the surface of the rock. I also experimented with separately mixing graphite powder with a binding medium to create liquid to potentially paint with, testing graphite powder mixed with water, gum Arabic and both water and gum Arabic together, exploring the consistencies produced by each. Gum Arabic produced the best results, creating a suitably opaque solution which applied well to paper. Despite this it is likely I will stick to using dry graphite powder for similar style pieces so as to best pick up the textures of the rock surfaces and to therefore create a more direct impression of the landscape through rock rubbing. Though I will attempt to dip a graphite piece in the sea, inspired by Jessica Warboys, to experiment with adding another aspect of the location into a piece to give it an even stronger sense of place and to see whether the salt water alters my work in any way. I will also potentially look at adding rock paint to a graphite powder frottage piece to provide comparison to the rock paint and pencil rubbing works.

A group crit session enlightened me to some new techniques and materials to explore within my practice. An idea that stood out to me was to use a more translucent fabric to complete my rubbings upon in order to allow light to pass through and to exaggerate the lack of physical mass my works contain in comparison to their subject matter (rocks), maintaining the hint of irony present in my work: representing something categorised by its heaviness as such a lightweight object. Such an idea would work well when displayed as a hanging piece in the centre of a space (not against a wall) or even photographed within the natural landscape that particular piece was based upon whilst being draped or held so that some of said landscape is visible through the fabric, making it ever more present within my work. A fabric that may work well for this could be a lightweight muslin. Due to the translucent nature of muslin I could also explore the idea of layering my works; completing multiple frottage and paint pieces onto the fabric then displaying them hanging in a layered fashion – this could also be explored outdoors, layering the pieces until the natural landscape is no longer visible through the fabric.

Another idea brought to light was to extend my rocks/fake rocks covered in rubbings to involve an entire room or space, giving a rather overwhelming presence of landscape and immersing the viewer within my work. This plays with the idea of transporting a natural, outdoor environment into an artificial white cube style setting, through this I will be able to explore whether or not my work can effectively do this. I would cover even unrelated items in rocks rubbings, for example tables, walls and ideally a section of floor in an attempt to join the natural and artificial worlds together. There would potentially be a hint of humour present in such a piece as it echoes the idea of a prank – covering everything in a room with tin foil.

An alternative installation idea could be to suspend a large number of my fake rocks from the ceiling at differing heights with invisible wire, so that the viewer would walk within the work surrounded by rocks and therefore surrounded by the natural landscape that I am attempting to capture. This idea is inspired by Cornelia Parker’s floating pieces, such as ‘Neither From Nor Towards’ (1992) where a number of weathered bricks are suspended with wire in a room.

Neither From Nor Towards (1992), Cornelia Parker