This series of drawings references 70s Minimalist ideals creating echo chambers that reverberate with notions of perfection and attraction. They mystify their familiarity through substituting the finely calibrated application of graphite with that of artificial lashes.
Drawing as a child I vividly remember my mother sitting in front of the mirror and applying make up. It was an actively that was singular, a very particular and concentrated act of mark marking. Lines were traced with a steady hand, eyebrows appeared through feathery strokes, and fat brushes heavy with powders were dispatched with unexpected efficiency. I remember savouring this moment of shared intimacy knowing it would take her away from us and into the night.
The same quiet intensity of mark making is evident in the works of artist Eva Hesse. While I was watching my mother, Hesse (along with other Minimalist Artists) was playing with notions of repetition and symmetry - creating drawings by systematically and methodically filling in the squares of graph paper with tiny marks. At first sight my drawings seem to offer a similar intimacy through gesture but closer inspected reveals instead a proxy, for what appears to be drawn lines are in fact false eyelashes meticulously applied to the glass surface of shadow box frames. Laid on the underside of the glass the lashes cast shadows onto the paper below making it hard to determine what is real and what is merely projected.
Born in New Zealand, Carolyn Menzies studied sculpture at the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts and completed her MA in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins, London, in 2001. She has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in New Zealand, Australia and the UK. Her work often incorporates unusual and diverse materials and conveys a poetic fascination with processes of transformation.
Drawing as a child I vividly remember my mother sitting in front of the mirror and applying make up. It was an actively that was singular, a very particular and concentrated act of mark marking. Lines were traced with a steady hand, eyebrows appeared through feathery strokes, and fat brushes heavy with powders were dispatched with unexpected efficiency. I remember savouring this moment of shared intimacy knowing it would take her away from us and into the night.
The same quiet intensity of mark making is evident in the works of artist Eva Hesse. While I was watching my mother, Hesse (along with other Minimalist Artists) was playing with notions of repetition and symmetry - creating drawings by systematically and methodically filling in the squares of graph paper with tiny marks. At first sight my drawings seem to offer a similar intimacy through gesture but closer inspected reveals instead a proxy, for what appears to be drawn lines are in fact false eyelashes meticulously applied to the glass surface of shadow box frames. Laid on the underside of the glass the lashes cast shadows onto the paper below making it hard to determine what is real and what is merely projected.
Born in New Zealand, Carolyn Menzies studied sculpture at the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts and completed her MA in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins, London, in 2001. She has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in New Zealand, Australia and the UK. Her work often incorporates unusual and diverse materials and conveys a poetic fascination with processes of transformation.
