{"id":658,"date":"2023-11-13T15:43:10","date_gmt":"2023-11-13T15:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/tracey\/?p=658"},"modified":"2023-11-13T15:43:12","modified_gmt":"2023-11-13T15:43:12","slug":"silhouettes-and-shades-a-work-of-ekphrasis-and-ellipses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/tracey\/silhouettes-and-shades-a-work-of-ekphrasis-and-ellipses\/","title":{"rendered":"SILHOUETTE(S) AND SHADE(S): A WORK OF EKPHRASIS AND ELLIPSES"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Phil Sawdon<\/p>\n\n\n

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Phil Sawdon,\u00a0Shadow or<\/em>\u00a0Silhouette That Makes Itself,<\/em>\u00a02008, modified in 2022, pastel and watercolour on paper. Image courtesy of the artist.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Competent at drawing \u2026 I used to chalk similarities on the shop door. Needless to say, I endeavoured to speak very quietly to the door, meanwhile the donkey stopped short, and would not move. In my head I have developed a discernment for profiles \u2026 previously tottering around a travelling fair \u2026 we noticed one more donkey shivering \u2026 he had eaten the leaded pencil yet managed to stammer that a profile-cutter wanted an assistant \u2026 thought I should do it \u2026 I had to tout \u2026 periodically mount the likeness on card \u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Please step inside \u2026 have a likeness taken \u2026\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Words, lines, and blots into a head, creatures \u2026 ‘\u00e0 la [Etienne de] Silhouette’ \u2026 outline drawing \u2026 shadow portrait \u2026 drawn onto a substrate \u2026 silhouette \u2026 at a snail\u2019s pace.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Phil Sawdon,\u00a0Page 1, The Artificial Sketchbook,<\/em>\u00a02005, pen and ink on paper. Image courtesy of the artist.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Three blind stamps \u2026 ‘Museum’, ‘The Fictional Museum of Drawing’ and ‘Artificial Sketchbook’\u2026 a label, a legend to identify the silhouette that at one time was probably drawn in ‘The Fictional Museum of Drawing’ \u2026 the former with a bugle player with out-stretched arm, the latter with a dachshund. Sometimes the stamps can be trusted, sometimes they cannot. Am I without drawing or machine? A physiognotrace \u2026 physiognomy \u2026 pantograph \u2026 physionotraces \u2026 alliterative \u2026 a wooden framed tripod contraption \u2026 shadow of the sitter \u2026 a lit candle against a screen \u2026 Lavater (1741-1801) \u2026 ‘Essays on Physiognomy, for the Promotion of the Knowledge and the love of Mankind’ \u2026 1772 \u2026 possibly a person\u2019s true personality is exposed in the subtle physical characteristics of their appearance \u2026 the silhouette divulges those qualities \u2026 a multi-layered narrative?<\/p>\n\n\n

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Phil Sawdon,\u00a0Page 2, The Artificial Sketchbook,<\/em>\u00a02005, pen and ink on paper. Image courtesy of the artist.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Customarily the Museum does not rely on labels and or stamps \u2026 perhaps the chance of a signature \u2026 perhaps a tell-tale sign that turns out to be intangible. There is a style …<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A pen and a piece of discounted white paper inserted beneath. Long, thin, and at times dangling from a \u2018commonplace book\u2019 \u2026 momentarily a scrapbook of signatures, soon to be analysed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Museum Keeper archived a signature collar, both cut and then drawn. A small notch in the bust. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps with the sitter \u2026 a defective contrivance \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n

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Phil Sawdon, Triptych No. #2, 1993, watercolour on paper. Image courtesy of the artist.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u2026 occasional brush strokes on display, a black colorant coating, thick, matte, opaque often water dry \u2026 bone black, sitting on a thin black surface, variation from silhouette to silhouette, pigment and binder, silica, wax and gum \u2026 watercolours?<\/p>\n\n\n

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Phil Sawdon, Contradictions, 1995, watercolour on paper. Image courtesy of the artist.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u2026 India ink, pine soot, beer and tallow smoke \u2026 lamp black, dry watercolour, moist pan watercolour, carbon black, gall-nuts, white wine vinegar, iron filings, gum arabic \u2026 gouache for details ornamented with whites \u2018bronzed\u2019 or \u2018touched\u2019 \u2026 probably not \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n

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Phil Sawdon, La Souris Est En Dessous De La Table, Page 20i, 2015, mixed media.
Image courtesy of the artist.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u2018Did you ever practice with scissors on the cut-out of a deckchair?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I cut all kinds of things including sealing a head in the box.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside: \u2018Only long straight shanks with short, sharp points, slack on the hinge \u2026 embroidery types are a partiality, they provide a flexible dexterity that transforms varied directions for an easy does it persuasion … \u2018<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In combination \u2026 a knife, a stiletto, a bradawl, a stylus and a needle spike \u2026 a side of the dry thin oiled paper the drawing is cut from, the edge is curled, trodden and tattered \u2026 In the background a simulated Albrecht D\u00fcrer\u2019s head, engraving ‘Knight Death and the Devil’, 1513.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Scissor-types\u2019 \u2026 \u2018hollow cut\u2019 with a painted body \u2026 cut from a light paper, the middle, the positive, the furthest place from fixed points of view \u2026 falls away \u2026leaving the negative, the outside \u2026 backed by melancholic paper and desolate fabrics drawn into a space of theory and practice, in between the mind and the hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shadows play \u2026 sunlight scraping on a photosensitive surface made to fool whilst tracing shadows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A hand drawn shade \u2026 a paper-cut silhouette \u2026 querying \u2026 \u2018What shall I draw?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I don\u2019t know how to draw!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n

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Phil Sawdon, What Shall I Draw?\/Reflection, 2007, video stills. Image courtesy of the artist.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

A humdrum shadow show(s) \u2026 a stylus tracing the silhouette \u2026 that of a younger self mostly devoid of interest \u2026 an apology of allegorical shades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Use a cardboard box and a pencil.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘No doubt (a)A (s)Sure and (c)Convenient (m)Machine for (d)Drawing (d)Silhouettes’ \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Half veiled by a cardboard box, the right-handed draughter, engrossed, clutches the sharp blacklead pencil which holds the box firm to an unseen chair and a candle on an elaborate carved stand offers a trace of poise to the Museum \u2026 no head dress for sitting \u2026 decorated in whatever manner \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n

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Phil Sawdon, Triptych No. #3, 1993, watercolour on paper. Image courtesy of the artist.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Meeting many people but not being touched by anyone \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n

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Phil Sawdon, Triptych No. #1, 1993, watercolour on paper. Image courtesy of the artist.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The narrative takes place around and yet is distanced from the silhouetted foreground figure. A pull between a highly controlled visual response and an openness of interpretation invited by the absence of meaningful titles is perhaps pivotal to the dynamics of any narrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twisted from the inside out \u2026 tones and contrasts determined in black and white. The silhouette emerges indifferent to the paper \u2026 perched, devoid of details \u2026 whilst on the others hand \u2026 ahead \u2026 an intimate atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, there are oversights \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A poverty of silhouette \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Phil Sawdon Competent at drawing \u2026 I used to chalk similarities on the shop door. Needless to say, I endeavoured to speak very quietly to the door, meanwhile the donkey stopped short, and would not move. In my head I have developed a discernment for profiles \u2026 previously tottering around a travelling fair \u2026 we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":505,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"lboro_blog_alternative_thumbnail_image":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/tracey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/tracey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/tracey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/tracey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/505"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/tracey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/tracey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":668,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/tracey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658\/revisions\/668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/tracey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/tracey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/tracey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}