Notes from a nerve-wracking presentation…
Nathalie Bouleau Chabot: Third year Printmaker
Before I joined the course I studied one year of Fashion, things like pattern cutting and pin marking have influenced my style of working, and my clean, precise attitude probably comes from there too.
The use of paper is central to my practice and I am occupied in dealing with line, gesture and interruption to reveal paradoxical qualities of intent/accident reveal/ conceal substance / light and fragment/whole.
My work is difficult to photograph, an issue I will have to work on further in the course.
“Threadburn” was an accidental test piece, which was actually chosen to be shown in Japan along with three other works
Primitive and universal aspects are of interest to me. Last year I looked at modern and vernacular architecture, exploring lines. Marks and Traces can vary in the information they offer. The physical act and process of making, through methods such as burning, pouncing, piercing or cutting are important to me, as are the laborious, repetitive actions required to construct pieces of work.
This year, I am looking at the circle as a symbol and a motif. The symbols of man are infinite in their complexity but simple in their rules. The dot and the circle are symbols of the first order of all humans. A recurrent motif in architecture of every civilisation, they can show the reflective self-awareness that is present in all humans of all cultures and locations.
I will also become more sculptural, thinking about how we physically look at work. When I work, a contemplative space is created wherein I am more fully able to reflect on my own sensory experience. I want to create a similar meditative space for the viewer where they can experience the familiar through my work in infinite ways; with mark making acting as a form of contact between artist and medium, artist and audience and audience and work.
