I-N-T-E-R-L-U-D-E (2024)
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Introduction
I-N-T-E-R-L-U-D-E is a (sign)painterly series of digital and physical work which explores themes of legibility and memory. Rooted in my fascination with the limitations of language, the project plays with the elusive feeling of memories just out of reach.
Process
The work originates from letterforms painted with a
sable hair paintbrush using traditional signwriting enamel paint. I enjoy the
tactile nature of signwriting, with its physicality and imperfections. This
palpable quality, revealing the human touch, is something I emphasised by using
thick, slightly dry paint to show the brush bristles in the strokes. 
Signwriting letterforms are constructed from a limited set of brushstrokes. I experimented, digitally and physically, with omitting certain strokes to test the limits of legibility—inviting viewers to engage in the reconstruction of something incomplete.
Continuing the painterly process, I used a roller to create hand-pulled monotypes, which were used to form structural clouds for the letters to play with—text and texture. I like the way the roller creates horizontal and vertical marks which echo the roman capital letterforms, whilst giving a gentle nod to cubist techniques.
For digital pieces these began life as a series of black prints which were repurposed as raw materials to be manipulated and coloured digitally.
Taking the analogue brushstrokes into the digital realm I found I could create further layers of ambiguity by using digital displacement maps of the monotypes themselves—smudging letters and adding a fog of uncertainty that seems to mirror the slippery nature of memories. This digital manipulation creates an in-between space, where analogue meets digital, where clarity and confusion intermingle.
The inspiration for this digital process came from me accidentally putting my elbow into letters I’d just physically painted with enamel paint, forcing the letters to interact with the texture of the paint beneath. I liked the ‘ghosting’ effect.
I enjoy starting digital work in black and white and colourising them later. It creates a kind of dialogue between past and present, and I’ve also used the black and white elements to send out a small number of physical invites for this work. The colours were chosen intuitively and the digital works were later curated into two colour modes: Paper and Glass.
Background
Last year I spent a very strange day in Accident &
Emergency (ER) with my Mum, who was experiencing an episode of transient global
amnesia. For eight long hours she had forgotten most of the previous four or
five years and couldn’t form new short-term memories. She’d forgotten that the
Queen of England had died, that wars had started, that Covid had happened and
that close friends had died. That day, as time stood still, Mum showed a
strange innocence and a playful optimism.This got me wondering how people might find themselves today if they could forget the impact of recent global events on their lives—if they could shed the weight of the last few years.
The pandemic has also had a strong negative impact on childhood literacy rates. Might we be heading towards a post-literate society?
Combining memories and excerpts from that day in the hospital with insights gleaned from recent mental health research, I constructed narratives from my incomplete brushstrokes. Some of these are challenging to read, others less so.
The title I-N-T-E-R-L-U-D-E hopefully carries a positive undertone, symbolising a return to life’s rhythm after adversity. Whilst memories may linger in the spaces, these pieces might be deciphered if the viewer accepts the absence and reconnects.
I-N-T-E-R-L-U-D-E #7 displayed at the Studio KIND Summer Open, Sept 2024.