Saskia Marks
What I Saw, Remembered, Dreamed
Prompt: 'To make and collect observations every day this first week of the semester. Observations can take any form - suggestions include drawing, photography, collecting, note-taking, sound recording, writing down things you overhear etc. You can do this wherever you are, with whatever tools you have to hand. Also every day, alongside what you observe externally, record dreams you have or have had, or memories recalled this week. These dream records must be drawn or collaged, and can include some text. 'Develop the material you made and collected into a finished piece.'
By chance, I happened to notice a pile of carrier bags that were accumulating in the corner of my dorm’s entrance due to my suite mates’ takeaway addiction – these proving to achieve my desired aesthetic and symbolic effect for multiple reasons: Aesthetic – My final outcome would ultimately be several carrier bags with drawings on them hung up against the wall. Symbolic – The idea of the carrier bag made me really reflect on the fact that we carry so many people in our lives – whether we see particular striking people who happen stick in our minds, or of course the people we remember and stay close to our hearts, and even the occasional wacky (for me at least!) person seen in our dreams. One of my favourite elements is the fact that the work quite literally protrudes out, further enhancing the textural impact, whilst also adding depth and dimension. Additionally, I believe I successfully fulfilled my goal of incorporating texture into these drawings – achieved through a range of mark making and tones. In my opinion, the most skilful example of this would have to be the blue wash jeans – with the pointillism replicating the denim’s fibre content and the darker tones imitating the fabric’s folds, creating this energetic sense of form. Furthermore, all of the drawings’ textural elements are only intensified by the bags’ own ‘imperfect’ textural qualities – rough, folded, crumpled, greasy, ripped, stapled – which I believe only emphasises the overall dynamism of these unique, special and perhaps even somewhat bizarre individuals who have stuck in my mind.