Trace VIII

Compressed charcoal on paper

One of a  series of drawings which explores the duality of absence and presence and addresses themes of female identity. The items of empty clothing are shells of absent women which I combine with wallpaper patterns to suggest a domestic interior and the memories and traces it contains. The drawings reference the ambivalent nature of the home in regard to women, particularly mothers; a place of sanctuary and comfort but also, potentially, a place of oppressive confinement and isolation in which they can become subsumed - just ‘part of the wallpaper’.