Still Lives is a series of digital abstract animations that explore what is present in the moment of making a mark. Using the computer screen as paper, and seeking to express the physical dialogue between object and maker, the animations are firmly rooted in the digital world of computer processing. Made with hi- and low-end software, the digital timeline carries the gesture to pursue an aesthetic authorship, set in a virtual context.
Stephen Siwiak, an artist who uses drawing in his practice and who contributed to the process, stated ‘drawing appears to be an innate activity, [yet] in any period of art history we can see that the marks remain the same’. This series of studies begins to explore how digital line, mechanical and unintuitive, can become its opposite – playful, artistic and able to visualise the relationship between hand, eye and mind.
CREDITS:
Created by: Chantal Oakes
Drawings by: Stephen Siwiak
ABOUT CHANTAL OAKES:
Chantal Oakes uses a collaborative arts practice to produce text and moving image. Recent pieces include work for Preston Live Arts Festival, Living City (on-line), Harris Art Gallery, and Fish Factory, and writing for Black History Connections (on-line), Asylum Magazine, Peepal Tree Press (fiction), and University of Massachusetts Press.