Beth Heaney

Statement

My interest in what Drawing is and what it can do has expanded into walking, writing, working, speaking, and thinking. I am currently exploring sequential drawing through experiments with graphic memoirs. 

For this piece - commissioned by The Bioregional Learning Centre and funded by the Environment Agency for The Saltmarsh Project - I was testing the affect of performative actions and trace combined with speech. In the film, the audio presents a 'graphic image' whereas the charcoal mark remains abstract: stretching the convention of narrative drawing. Revisiting the dichotomies of image and narrative invites a 'listening' to drawing and creates a laboratory for understanding the sensorial and embodied experience of drawing.

Bio

I am an artist, researcher and educator based in Devon. My practice is an enquiry (obsession, medium, language, sensibility and philosophy) into drawing and takes many forms; film, movement (particularly walking), marking, speech, sound, text and even gardening. I have co created drawing symposiums, festivals, collectives, exhibitions and education programmes throughout the UK and currently immersed in personal research using my lived experience to explore graphic memoir in an expanded sense.