‘Everything that has ever happened to us - our birth, the fall from a tree at age six, our thoughts and feelings, what we eat, the climate in which we live - is inscribed upon our body, creating a living archeological record. ‘
- Donna Farhi
My multidisciplinary art practice is characterized by a deep curiosity of the body; its intrinsic link to language, the ephemerality of its movements, and its capacity to carry an archive of experience over time. Personal in origin, my practice seeks to understand and poetically capture ordinary and yet poignant narratives in form. I consider these ideas through a material-based studio practice that involves performative drawing, stitching, writing and listing, photography and small sculptural works. My work presents documents that reference the personal archive (lists, journal-like texts and photographs), draws maps out of experiences of solitude, and seeks to chronicle individual identity by uncovering intimate moments that exude both vulnerability and strength. Though rooted in my experiences, this work aims to speak to the larger cycle of uncertainties, wonder and heartbreak of everyday life.
Manifesting as works on paper, small embroideries on textile, photographs or small sculptures, my works carry an introspective tone. My process is a balance both intuitive and deliberate and the materials that I select emphasize the physicality of my gestures in making and, whether through the written word, hand stitching, or my body in the image, the feeling, experiencing body is referenced.
Danielle Bleackley