Rachael Elwell – The Capacity of Line
Monday, February 21st, 2011 at 10:45 am
Posted by Jenny
Rachael Elwell, featured previously through her work with the King’s Arms Knitting Club, is the artist in residence at Touchstones Gallery, Rochdale. Her current solo exhibition, The Capacity of Line, will be shown at the gallery until 13th March. The exhibition explores the perceptual connections between line, form and space through contemporary drawing processes.
As part of the exhibition Rachael has set up a workspace in gallery 3 where she will continue to develop her work. Visitors can watch the artist at work and take part in several research projects, which Rachael will use in later works. The residency will run on Saturdays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11am to 4pm between 29 January and 24 February 2011.
Rachael originally developed this body of work during her four-month residency at Artists Unlimited in Rochdale’s twin town of Bielefeld, Germany in 2009 and has added new works this exhibition.
Rachael describes her work as something that is continually evolving and goes further to describe it as generative.
“My whole practice is completely organic in process. The drawings use the monochrome language of line, form and texture to create imagery removed from traditional views of representation. Many of the new drawings are making sense (indirectly) of everyday forms. The starting point of the drawings always derives from a previously exploited system or process. These systems allow me to realise new ways of drawing, manipulating the media, and composing a drawing. I pay special attention to the imperfections that can occur as a result of exploiting systems and rules that are put in place, and it is usually these parts of a drawing that I pull out and investigate further to make new drawings. Therefore my work is generative and always in a state of transformation.”
You can read more at www.thecapacityofline.blogspot.com where Rachael is documenting her work.
What: The Capacity of Line
When: 18 December 2010 – 13 March 2011 / Residency runs from Saturdays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11am to 4pm between 29 January and 24 February 2011
Where: Touchstones Gallery, Rochdale
More Info: www.link4life.org / www.thecapacityofline.blogspot.com
February 24th, 2011 at 9:15 am
it’s kind of cool to see an artist being featured (specifically being offered artist in residence) who does something so back to the basics like these detailed and precise drawings. the art world is getting so caught up in trying to one up each other with so so so conteporary artists and artwork that maybe some things like this are being lost…
sorry, such a ramble. but it’s nice to see this – the work still has a nice modern feel to it as well.
March 1st, 2011 at 2:51 pm
Hi Kaitlyn,
really nice to read your feedback comment and it’s really great to read such a positive responce.
You are very right in saying that a lot of art misses the very essence of it’s creation and becomes over processed and sometimes too clever for it’s own good, which in turn makes it boring.
All of my work is about the experience of drawing, how we formulate compositions and create marks, and how build up and percieve images from simple individual detail – if we repeat these details thousands of times we get super results.
best wishes
Rachael