On/Off

2017

Chalk pigment marker, ink, soft pastel and coconut oil on fabric.

250x160cm

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Periods of awake-ness and asleep-ness possess their own thoughts and thinking patterns. These thoughts are often more contained and for the most part malleable. It is during the not-awake-but-not-asleep periods where thoughts spill in streams of consciousness, constantly evolving with the arrival of different ideas and triggers. These times of ‘not-sleep’ engulf and override coherency. 

Through use of text and the human form as a drawing tool, On/Off explores ideas of insomnia and paranoia. The mind is materialised into a gentle, familiar, and worn-in environment – a place of rest, comfort and anxiety. Words spill across this surface, journaling the internal monologue and experiences of these nocturnal states of consciousness, when we’re ‘not-sleep’-ing. “On” and “Off” reflect actions, time, emotions and thoughts that surround the artist’s own experience with sleep and consciousness. Light switches, blankets, words, triggers, stress, breathing, windows, fly screens, conversations, positions – all intertwined and connected through an ‘on-again-off-again’ relationship.