Inside Out 2001

Tal R made this drawing called 'Inside Out' with ink, and right away I'm struck by the mark-making – it’s like a dense thicket of lines, a real process of layering and building up an image. Looking closer, you can see the scratchy texture and the way the ink bleeds into the paper. It feels immediate, like a snapshot of the artist's mind. The table is chaotic, overloaded with tools, cups, and strange sculptural objects. There’s a head on a plinth, a figure working on something... The shapes are blobby and organic, but also sort of ominous. See the way he’s used the cross-hatching to create depth and shadow, but without ever really settling on a fixed point of view, it is like a map of a mind rather than a real space. It reminds me a little of Guston's later work, that same feeling of unease and dark humour. It leaves you with more questions than answers. And that’s what makes it so compelling.