RECENT DRAWINGS
“Drawing is a process of observation and expression, receiving and giving, at the same time. It is always a result of yet another kind of double perspective; a drawing looks simultaneously outwards and inwards, the observed or imagined world, and into the draughtsman’s own persona and mental world. Each sketch and drawing contains a part of the maker and his / her mental world, at the same time it represents an object or vista in the real world, or in an imagined universe. Every drawing is also an excavation into the drawer’s past and memory.”
DRAWING WITH SHELLS
2023/24
Jettisoned oyster shells from the City shoreline spark new elements of drawn (and sewn) life. Taking a bird’s eye perspective, patterns surface and cross paths with linen twine, silk thread, dowel, wire, parchment papers and acrylic. A small scattering of limpet shells from the North Sea buttons down on the paper ground - tiny counters holding firm to a light landscape of sequential folds and stitches.
Series of three drawings. Dimensions, each: 38cm x 58cm
All images copyright Corinne Noble 2023/24
KENSINGTON REVISIONS (1-2) & (3-6)
2023
An archive photograph of the redevelopment of a site on Kensington Gore, London supplies a starting point for new patterns…
Dimensions: suspended drawing: 46cm x 135cm. Collage object: 24.5cm x 59cm x 2.5cm.
Materials: drawing pen and silk thread on parchment paper with bookcloth, ribbon and dowel. Collage: mixed media.
Photographic collage uses image courtesy RCA archive (photographer unknown). All other images copyright Corinne Noble 2023
MOVING A HOUSE (1,2,3)
2022
A series of works based around an old press photograph.
An old house was viewed on eBay, low bids were placed. This place, a large, unattributed press photograph was dispatched through the post – no keys were exchanged, nor deeds bought. The property was tangible, the tenancy virtual – like a doll’s house.
Over in the city, this image of the exterior was traced, dismantled, turned into a number of map-like drawings. Alternative plans arose. Linear descriptions of rooms, walls and windows... perhaps. Or, maybe, instead, how a building might write, draw, develop and grow using different materials, on a less exhaustive scale?
The image of the house passed through various stages - stitched and folded, trimmed and cut-away, lifted, glued and wrapped. At times the house was opened to light and shadow and re-pictured. Finally, mounted on book cloth in a dismantled picture frame, presented in less space than the real thing. Not actually habitable, but open to consideration.
Moving a House (1) Materials: found press photograph and mixed media. Dimensions: W 30cm x H 40cm x D 3cm
Moving a House (2 & 3) Materials: pen on parchment paper / mixed media. Dimensions: 2 - W 13cm x H 18.5m / 3 - W 30cm x H 48cm
All images copyright Corinne Noble 2022.
BACK TO WORK (TERRACE)
2022
A series of works inspired by a found record photograph.
A glossy photographic record of a dusty roadside by Walter Fussey & Sons shows a section of Wakefield Road in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, prior to a widening program sometime in the 1960’s.
The recorded scene is dressed with wires and chimneys, lit by a degree of sunlight. A row of old, stone buildings. A bare ladder besides four figures backed by spartan display-windows. I speculate, where is all this material nowadays? What trace remains, if any?
Enquiry begins - employing glassine paper and pen, I seek out areas of interest. Copying their contours to parchment paper grounds, marks build upon echoes of each other, branching out across sheet-like plans. Three folding charts result – are these plots for an episode of the street yet to be seen, perhaps?
Original black and white photograph attributed to Walter Fussey & Sons (c.1960’s) adapted into collage. All other images copyright Corinne Noble 2022.
TRACKS (BARN)
2021
A set of drawings inspired by an architectural ruin.
A quartet of folding drawings found their starting point in photographs of a fading Yorkshire barn. Slowly their linear patterns evolved, step-by-step, through acts of tracing, folding and re-outlining. Each pen-drawn plan attempts to chart a quiet process of visual enquiry - mapping a contemplative state from above and within.
Dimensions: drawings approx. 47cm x 77cm / photo collages: dimensions variable.
Materials: drawing pen and silk thread on parchment paper with bookcloth, ribbon and dowel. Photographic collages. All images copyright Corinne Noble 2021.
RE-PAIR
2020
A collection of drawings inspired by a found photograph.
Fine lines were teased from an unattributed photograph of a pair of Georgian-era entrances in East London. Slicing, shuffling and re-tracing these, designs for two new, imaginary shed-like buildings came into view. A second stage of assembly saw their images merge by way of layering, stitching and relighting. Finally these pieces became incorporated into a single ‘dwelling’, one appearing simultaneously ghostly and still-being-built. In this paper-based operation, two doors to a dream-world have been revived.
Materials: drawing pen, coloured pencil and cotton threads on parchment paper, with linen paper, ribbon, wooden dowel and metal split pins. Original black and white photograph unattributed (c.1960’s) adapted into collage. All other images copyright Corinne Noble 2020.
TIPPING PATTERNS
2020
A pair of drawings inspired by a series of photographs.
Photographs of a chanced-upon bonfire heap somewhere in the North of England about a decade ago, provide foundations for a pair of drawings. The shambolic, seasonal, pyramid-shaped puzzle was compelling - could it be some kind of Autumnal jigsaw tipped from its box, calling to be fixed? Gradually, what began with a ramshackle pile of wooden fragments developed into a near-symmetrical pattern in a sort of Art Deco style.
Materials: drawing pen, pencil and cotton thread on parchment paper, with ribbon and wooden dowel. All images copyright Corinne Noble 2010/2020.
More works in the ARCHIVE