STATEMENT

Jenifer Kent | Statement

Working on a flat table and using an archival ink pen, I hand-draw lines that coalesce into a field or form. I choose from a vocabulary of familiar marks which have evolved for me over many years: little lines, dots, small ovals and circles. The evolution of my mark-making practice has moved from drawing with ink covered peas, fingerprints, grease, burns, scratches and bubbles to ink on a clay coated panel. The symmetry of my current work might suggest a very mechanical approach using rulers and grids, but my drawings are always done freehand. The marks often grow slowly from the center, moving outwards and evolving organically, each according to its own cadence and gesture, following an intuitive path. The freehand lines are important to me – I think they have more presence when wobbly and imperfect. Each mark exists to me as evidence of a distinct and patient process, an incremental growth and an accumulation that requires a minute attention to detail. My process is slow, iterative and can be very meditative. Drawings take days and weeks of multiple sittings to reach completion.

I am interested in experiences of time, space, and sound. I want to draw the hum of everyday life, the chatter and stillness of my mind, acceleration, speed and movement, and also to stop that movement visually and experientially. I’m also curious about the process of making a drawing - the experience of collecting and planning marks, the repetition of my hand drawing the same shape again and again, and the pause, silence, and peace that comes with that process. Gaston Bachelard said that we rest in the comfort of habit, and there is a definite comfort for me in the repeated line and gesture. I seek to find a quiet and stillness in this work that can be quite challenging to find in the current of a fast-moving world, and my hope is that these drawings serve as a similar resting place and pause for my viewer, where one can land for a moment in the lines, experience a slow movement from center outward, and perhaps untangle the chaos of life to slow down, mark time and be still.