I was looking back to see if you were looking back to see if I was looking back at me
2017
The act of drawing eyes brings to mind the cycle of drawing – I look, process, mark, I look, process, mark, I look…….. To draw the thing that makes this cycle possible attends to the act of looking and the notion of being seen. I look at the thing that looks. But these eyes are not real. They are beautifully pretending. I was moved to tears on seeing my uncles two glass eyes fitted – fitted in part to ease our pain of witnessing his loss, a loss sustained in a farming accident. These exquisite prosthetic gems reveal the sublime reality of our own eyes and how they look, in every sense.
Commissioned by and shown in The Ruskin Gallery. Museum Sheffield.
Pencil Crayon on Paper
44cm x 85cm