Closing the distance - An ouroboros that symbolizes interconnection
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This text drawing is about the distance and isolation we have all experienced during the lockdown. It expresses hope towards getting back to normality, and it is also about anti-racism and equality. By making the hands in opposite colours, Nicola Anthony strives to inspire the idea of kinship, that those who appear different from us are not so different at all.
The original piece is drawn with ink pen, and every mark is an alphabet character. Nicola's drawings with text seek to show the complexity and richness of multilayered stories that exist within all people. The ouroborus shape suggests an eternal cycle which hints at life, death and rebirth. It also speaks of metamorphosis and change, interconnection and balance, and the continual reconceptualizing of the universe and the world around us. |
CLOSING THE DISTANCE by NICOLA ANTHONY
Fine Art Giclee Print on Hahnemuehle paper
Limited Edition: 50
Available with a coloured and a white background
50 x 40 cm and 65 x 51 cm
2020
Solitude but not loneliness
BART WAS NOT HERE (Kyaw Moe Khine) cannot think of a life without drawing. The Pokemon cards first inspired him to draw cartoon characters. He was only 12 when internet cafés, where he discovered rap music and graffiti art, became popular in Yangon. Bart 's artistic practice is dictated by his playful attitude and his paintings are inspired by comics, movies and music. Even during the lockdown, Bart never felt alone, to the opposite he kept busy and connected by creating new artworks and sharing them on line. View Bart's creative process in the following video
"On a Gloomy Day" was created to be the cover of Htet's new album "The H is Silent", which was launched at the beginning of the lockdown.
"Solitude" was also created during the lockdown. It is a print series of a pen drawing on paper, digitally coloured.
"Solitude" was also created during the lockdown. It is a print series of a pen drawing on paper, digitally coloured.
The Present
"The Present" is an altered book artwork, which was created during Singapore' s circuit breaker. Visual artist, poet and art therapist, Pang often starts his day with "blackout poetry".
An altered book is an existing book changed in an artwork by alterations such as cuttings, collages, drawings, paintings. It can also consist of creating an altered text by covering or highlighting certain words of phrases with a felt marker or pen. Although this practice can be considered disrespectful or wasteful in some socio-economic contexts, it is a very old practice, which can be traced back to the 11 th century when Italian monks recycled old vellum manuscripts.
In art therapy, creating altered books is a precious technique which is less intimidating than a blank canvas for people with no artistic experience or sensibility. The book is used as a canvas and its content works as a catalyst for the creation of a new meaning and a new piece of art.
The book symbolizes knowledge, learning, wisdom, both universe and self. Re-authoring a book that already exists symbolises the parallel possibility to rewrite one’s own life.