Mundaring Arts Centre | Artist in Focus | 2015
Transforming Gallery 2 of Mundaring Arts Centre, with an installation of Emaki drawings, creating a 10 metre long work of continuous mark making, inspired by Japanese artist Mayako Nakamura. “My approach is to construct, demolish, repair and through this type of layering, construct the history of the piece. This study will be an experimental work of time, space and the reflection of my body and thoughts each day.”
Threads (detail), Gayle Mason, mixed media on paper emaki, 10m.
Untitled, Gayle Mason, mixed media
Threads, Gayle Mason, mixed media on paper emaki, 10m.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Drawing a 10-metre-long artwork is the continuation of the dialogue between the paper, materials, and my thoughts and experiences unthe ‘flow state’
Sometimes it’s a long conversation.
Drawing an Emaki for me is a primal impulse to make marks, It is a visual record of my own inner landscape and experiences.
There is a need to both create and destroy. It is about the pure enjoyment of markmaking and a search for truth. Like a meditation each day, I engage with my energy and how I feel, from memory (my history) nature, family, friends, and my surroundings.
I never start with a rigid theme or subject, preferring to keep the process open, It is very exciting for me to see the natural marks stand alone and then through building up the history, create a dialog with the surrounding marks. After 10 metres of markmaking and focusing like I have been fully immersed within the drawing. I am set free and can step back and find that the problem is solved. Composition, colour palette, markmaking and the lyrical quality of the piece as well as the meaning, will become quite apparent even surprising myself.