Dimensions: support: 294 x 208 mm
Copyright: © Helena Almeida | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: Helena Almeida’s "Drawing (with pigment)" presents us with hands rendered in striking black pigment. The contrast between the stark white paper and the density of the pigment is quite arresting. What can you tell me about the materiality of this piece? Curator: I notice the directness of Almeida's process. The drawing is clearly a sketch, almost a study of the hands themselves. The pigment, its source unknown, becomes the subject. How does the application of this material challenge the hierarchy between the subject and the means? Editor: That's a thought-provoking point! It makes me consider the labor involved in the creation of the pigment itself, and the deliberate choice of this medium. Curator: Exactly! Almeida asks us to consider the act of making and the social contexts embedded within the materials themselves, rather than just the image they depict. Editor: I'll definitely look at drawings differently from now on.
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/almeida-drawing-with-pigment-t13489
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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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