Dimensions: support: 294 x 208 mm
Copyright: © Helena Almeida | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Curator: This is Helena Almeida’s "Drawing (with pigment)," currently held at the Tate. Editor: It’s unsettling. The stark white space and disembodied arms create a feeling of isolation. Curator: Indeed. Note how Almeida uses the negative space—the void—as a compositional element, heightening the sense of emptiness. The line work is minimal, almost skeletal. Editor: Arms often symbolize action and connection. Here, they appear inert, passive, suggesting perhaps a loss of agency or a surrender. Is it a self-portrait? Curator: The artist's body is often central to her work, exploring themes of identity and the female body, so, quite possibly. The lack of background further abstracts the figure. Editor: A powerful, if subdued, statement about the self and its place in the world. Curator: Precisely. It invites contemplation on the very nature of being.
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/almeida-drawing-with-pigment-t13474
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This is one of thirty-eight drawings in Tate’s collection by Almeida, all of which are rendered in ink, pen and pigment on sheets of off-white A4 paper. Each sheet has four holes punched down one side, and a number of the sheets have drawings on both sides. The images consist of simple line drawings, overlaid with passages of dense pigment. Each depicts the artist’s body in whole or in part. Many detail her hands, often in the act of drawing. Other images show the artist’s legs, arms or torso, or show her performing an action: dragging an unidentifiable mass that is attached to her ankle by a rope, or pushing her prone body up from the floor.
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