Watercolour on paper 10*10 cm
Watercolour on paper 10*10 cm
Watercolour on paper 10*10 cm
Watercolour on paper 10*10 cm
Watercolour on paper 10*10 cm
Watercolour on paper 10*10 cm
THE BEGINNING OF FREEDOM
Watercolour on paper 8*6 cm
Watercolour on paper 10*10 cm
Watercolour on paper 10*10 cm
Watercolour on paper 10*10 cm
Watercolour on paper 10*10 cm
This is how my project started: small watercolour paintings. While working on these pieces, the empty space in the paintings suddenly caught my attention. I started exploring this absence because I felt like this empty space was a translation of a familiar experience for me as a marginalised individual. It is common for those who are rendered invisible to be ignored and not validated. I realised that this absence in my paintings was a way to point something out. Just like in life, when you are being invalidated, you can understand that something is going on in what is being ignored, but you cannot precisely understand what.
The Absence of Us on the Sofa
Watercolour on paper 10*10 cm
Us on the Sofa
Watercolour on paper 15*20 cm
The kiss
Watercolour on paper 10*10 cm
The absence of the kiss
Watercolour on paper 10*10 cm
Copying the Kiss
Watercolour on paper 6*10 cm
The embrace
Watercolour on paper 10*10 cm
The absence of the embrace
Watercolour on paper 10*10 cm
Us on the last day
Watercolour on paper 10*10 cm
Us now
Watercolour on paper 10*10 cm
A moment
Watercolour on paper 10*10 cm
(FitzPatrick, 2021)
I wanted to depict the idea of knowing something is there but not knowing precisely what it is. As Edwina FitzPatrick explained on her talk How do you communicate visually?, There are things we know that we know, but there are also things that we know, but don't know that we know. Very often arts points out what we already know but are not aware of knowing them. (FitzPatrick, 2021)
Sketches
Pencil on paper 14*21 cm
The kiss
Oil and charcoal on canvas 20*30 cm
The absence of the kiss
Oil on canvas 20*30 cm
By creating dual pieces that show the presence and absence of something and looking at them next to each other, I got to see the same concept from two different perspectives. I also got to know my ideas better and rethink them by sketching. And since I like the paintings “The Kiss” and “The Absence of the Kiss”, I painted them on canvas in a bigger size.
It was educating for me to look at the different qualities that the watercolour and the oil versions have and compare them with each other. I realised that I preferred the watercolour version of the absence better, so I started to think about the reason. What are some of the qualities that each of these paintings has, but the other one doesn’t?
Absence of the moment
Watercolour on paper 10*10 cm