SHARP LINES

  “coming back out into the world again – the lines still sharp.”  

Rachel Cusk

This body of work interrogates the idea of the self in the aftermath of trauma.  The nuances of damage. Then what remains. Each piece is a portrait.  An attempt to capture a sensation played out through the repeating metaphor of pollarded trees. Each strives to make tangible, experiences, emotions and predicaments.   

Herman identifies that “Traumatic events are extraordinary not because they occur rarely but because they overwhelm ordinary human adaptations to life… (They involve) a destruction of the belief that one can be oneself in relation to others.”

This work uses the material qualities of print: - repetition; surface; layers to realise these portraits.  Unpicking the processes and exploiting the fragility of the prints and plates themselves. 

Kentridge explains, “We desperately cling to the surface of things.” His work alongside the ideas of Bourgeois, Kahlo and Cusk inform this investigation.

To see further images from this body of work click HERE