I saw this art work at the RSA Annual Exihibition 2022.
Anne Curran Old, Mapped, Layered, 2020
There are many hollowed out point shapes in this piece and you can see that it has been fired. I was intrigued by the question of how the fire itself, which is difficult to control, could be fired to create such delicate shapes. Upon closer inspection, the material of the paper used in this work caught my attention. I observed that the paper had a wax-like coating on it, so it must have been painted first and then carefully coated with the part to be left behind before being fired.
The artist: "This sculpture is created from archival maps, where I manipulate distort and puncture the image. It is a way I communicate my ideas, born from connecting the past to the now. I created this piece with my meditative drawing using incense to burn , a repetitive process, a ritual. I use encaustic as my preferred medium in all my works, and these map images are coated in encaustic medium."
This work using the collision of paper and fire reminded me of a little science experiment I had read about before.
It involved writing on paper with lemon juice or white vinegar, which creates the effect of invisible ink because the liquid is transparent. When the words dried and were baked over a fire you could see the shape of the words.
It occurred to me that it might be possible to use this method to express one's inner thoughts, as if one were telling an inner secret. For people with avoidant attachment personalities this more covert way of expressing themselves would be slightly more relaxing.
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