Channelling Juan
I actually couldn’t sleep the night before visiting the work of Juan Munoz at the Turner Contemporary so childishly excited to really see work only known via the screen. On the first visit, I engaged with the work with my critical artist head on, made notes and came home to write a review for a-n see here: www.a-n.co.uk/p/3184746/ you would think that would be enough but I still could not sleep for thinking about Munoz’s uncanny figures. So I went back to the Turner with pencils, ink and book thinking that this would help me further engage with and process my feelings about the work Conversation Piece lll . After several false starts I focused in on the figure that appears as an outsider to the main group, it was fairly quiet in the gallery and as I worked the light began to change.
Munoz was colour blind and apparently people with this condition are more sensitive to tone; this is born out in these works they are like exquisite tonal drawings made in three dimensions. I also enjoyed watching people interact with the figures, several got told off for touching them. There is no doubt that they are very compelling. After the pencil “portrait” I moved on to ink and made a careful group study, as the light faded the whole gallery began to feel rather eerie.
Once home I decided to put a wash of watercolour on top of the ink to pull the tones together. Disaster! The ink was not waterproof, the ink figures blurred and dribbled. And so it was spoilt/changed/transformed, and I was able to let go of the skill/vanity thing and just work instinctively. I worked until late into the evening, completely absorbed until the paper couldn’t take anymore. It is a strange alien result a kind of “speaking in tongues”. It seems to have done the trick and I think I can move on now.
