SCARRED AND PUNCTURED
2017

SCARRED AND PUNCTURED

Caylus, France 2017

The abandoned interior of the church of St.-Amans-le-Vieux was, for me, an elemental ‘place of worship’, almost non-denominational, despite the old stone crosses scattered about.

The primal banging of the stones, their echoed resonance, the simple manual activity linking me back to the stonemasons of hundreds of years ago, who labored on these buildings, the dank, moldy floor and the filtered light through the day – this space, this action, fully engaged my senses.

Is this drawing, is this prayer? Kneeling on the cold stone floor, repetitively puncturing the paper with the stone tool was an activity emptied of the artist’s individuality, perhaps an echo of monks’ self-flagellation, channeling an exorcism of personal or collective wrongs?

Back in the studios, shown at the open house, the orientation of the paper changes – it becomes a long horizontal scroll, which one can read, from left to right or from right to left, following the obscure markings across the surface, the journey of a pilgrim.

The work ws carried out at the Church of Saint-Amans-le-Vieux, Caylus, S.W. France, as part of the DRAWinternational artists’ residency.