Working in the studio
My photograph taken at Tranmer House, Suffolk
Along with the rooms, I have been working on an ink drawing which is based on a photograph I took at Tranmer House. What I like about the photograph is the way the two chairs hang from the wall and I was reminded of Louise Bourgeois’ Cell installations and in particular one work called Passage Dangereux.
Louise Bourgeois (1997) Passage dangereux [Mixed media]
264 x 355.6 x 876.3 cm
Louise Bourgeois (1997) Passage dangereux
Passage dangereux is a tall metal caged work that is a corridor which is open leading through several rooms until finally reaching a closed door. Louise Bourgeois is making a link to origin, the mother, the home, but the work shows no sign of homeliness. She has created an uncanny environment by using familiar furnishings of the home – chairs, tables, mirrors. Suspended chairs hang from the wire caged cell. The chairs which hung from the wall at Tranmer house evoked the same feeling of uncanniness that Bourgeois had created with her hanging chairs in Passage dangereux .
My work next to the original photo I took at Tranmer House
I wanted to make my ink drawing a little different from the original photograph I took. The background has blue flowers. These are seemingly attractive but they are a metaphor for blood, horror and brutality of crime which has taken a fragile life. Two chairs are representations of domestic spaces and yet they float like ghosts. I want this work to feel like the viewer is looking at a room inside a haunted house.
Sarah Bale (2016) Chairs [ink, watercolour and charcoal on paper[ 62cm x 47cm
