Mimi, Ni Studios
October 2021
Charcoal on Cartridge Paper
I am a multidisciplinary artist whose roots are in charcoal.
However, I lost touch with this medium for a while.
I decided to return to charcoal for this series of work that I've coined ‘Outline of Man’.
This felt very organic & reflected the feeling of the work.
The pieces are predominantly based on my imagination and stems from my mental state & humour at the time of creation.
I also took inspiration from Irving Goffman who is my favourite sociologist. He theorised on his ‘Face Theory’ in which we all have different faces we present depending on the environment and people present at the time.
I gave them all their own personalities, which was a change of direction for me as I have never done that with any of my other pieces but was great fun. The reasoning behind this was to familiarise these symbols of people with different likes and dislikes, relating them to the every day person.
I started with a basic ‘outline of man’ using charcoal sticks & then added characteristics of faces to bring them to life. Doing this I also used blending stumps, a bendy rubber & pan pastel. The process to me was very experimental and quick in fruition of the final piece and felt very similar to mono printing.
We all have a similar basic outline , yet singularity is the key to who we are. Our eyes, nose & lips each differ tremendously, giving us our uniqueness. Our personalities are intrinsically constructed from our individual circumstances, emotions and experiences which can be broadcast on our faces to some extent.
Your face can say so much without saying a word.