The techniques employed in traditional textile crafts have long been an integral part of Ahn Wells’ art practice. Her new series of work, Patchwork Drawings continue to be informed by this interest: cutting, stitching and embroidery are all in evidence.
These complex and carefully assembled works on paper are the result of Wells producing and then cutting up large drawings (clearly intricate even in that original state) into very small sections and then reconfiguring them into analogous constructions of colour, texture and pattern. Each one has its own unique mood, depending on the particular combinations of selected pieces.
While Reconfiguration I (2010) utilises an argyle pattern reminiscent of atlas projections, the four Patchwork Drawings consist of square grids characteristic of patchwork quilts. The pattern of construction may be geometric, but the drawings feature fluid loops, curving lines and circular marks, their organic quality enhanced by the considered randomness of placement. These marks create networks of lines, the tracks criss-crossing the compositions, pulling the colours together.
Needlework, inferred in the works’ titles, is represented literally (Wells machine sews onto the paper) as well as being suggested by the process of repeatedly piercing the paper. These holes create a highly textured surface quality. In Patchwork Drawing II (2010) this impression is heightened by repetitive circular patterns finely drawn with graphite.
The intricate and delicately wrought detail of these works is best appreciated up close, but step back and the subtle nuances of colour come into their own. The pastel greens, purples, pinks and blues of Patchwork Drawing I (2010) float with a gentleness that derives from the softly merging tones. The much darker hues of Patchwork Drawing III (2010) jump and buzz with the inclusion of electric blue and deep red. Patchwork Drawing IV (2010) is a particularly pleasing combination of reds, olives and mauves, balanced by pale creams and dark blues.
Mapped landscapes come to mind as the segmented construction encourages the viewer to track vertical, horizontal and diagonal movements through the compositions, following the threads of colour and mark like cartographic contours.
Alison Smith
PODspace Gallery Co-Director 2010
November 2010
Artist Statement
I started making these drawing in March this year in Studio 25 where Anne and I share a space in the NCAC. I wanted to make drawings that combined my love for order and organisation with my need to be experimental making marks and creating textures and making layers. The result is the beginning of what I am now going to call “Patchwork Drawings”. I have named these drawings this because I make cut up each drawing like you do with a piece of material when making a patchwork quilt and then I glue it back together to form a new drawing in a similar way as a patchwork quilt would be sewn back together to make a quilt. It is not an accident that I am drawn to these textile processes as I am obsessed with anything that references textiles so for me it is not unusual that this obsession has filtered into my drawings. I hope that you, as the viewer take the time to look up close and then view from far away. They are more interesting visually than I expected and that is why I continue to draw.
exhibited at PODspace Gallery in the exhibition Silent Entropy with Anne McLaughlin (3 - 30 October 2010)