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  • Fragmentation - Jill Journeaux
  • These drawings are characterised by an emphasis on the handmade, both by myself and others, the depiction of both internal and external worlds simultaneously, and a domesticity of scale, source and reference. They are strongly informed by the decorative arts both as subject and language, and labour intensive processes are both a means of production and also a subject.

    The drawings make reference to specific pieces of handmade Irish and Belgian lace from the 18th century, which are held in the Nottingham Trent University Lace Archive. They are informed by the forms and subjects of Dutch seventeenth century flower paintings, in which the apparent simplicity and cohesion of the images is undermined by our knowledge of the longevities and origins of the flowers.

    The motifs and characters within the drawings are shaped by my physical, perceptional and imaginative experience. Insects, flowers, fruit etc are sometimes depicted as observed but at other times drawn in cross section, depicted diagrammatically, veiled or superimposed. I borrow from other visual languages such as botanical illustration and utilise other artists inventions such as Max Ernst’s crossed finger motif from the 1923 painting ‘Au premier mot limpide’. In playing with this motif I have been able to join it to an image of a tulip or sections of closing, or a body shape. It alludes to a sexual sign but also to ‘fingers crossed it’ll be okay’ and ‘fingers cross whilst I tell a lie’.


    Biographical information

    Jill Journeaux

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