Chris Nau

Having done the blind collagraphs I have become interested again in the use of shadows. This was initially begun in Foundation with the end of year exhibition piece.

Textures and layering in the landscape is one of my key interests, however, Chris Nau's pieces have inspired me to look more in to installation and follow up the projection work I was doing earlier in the year.

'Cutting entered through my drawing practice as reminder of the real within the fictional space of painting and drawing. This came from a part-time job as a painting restorer from 2000-2002. A painting of a landscape, for instance, depicts an illusion of depth. Punch a physical hole in this painting and this illusion collapses, and the object-ness and material of the painting dominates. In the process of restoration, I controlled the threshold between what was real and physical and what was illusion because I controlled the brush that in-painted over the patched hole to “restore” the image. In some restoration projects the moment of crossover was breathtaking and spectacular, stopping me in my work to simply look at the paradoxical image in front of me. I made this in-between stage the main subject of my work.

To intensify the presence of this in-between place as my subject matter, I began “stacking” opposing elements within my work, especially in the more sparse monochromatic wall-cut drawings. I explored the real and illusion; the creative and destructive; light and shadow; space and object; drawn line and cut line; natural and mechanical etc.

The wall-cut drawings became for me the crossroads of these stacked opposites.

Both the paintings and the wall-cut drawings explore the impermanence of all forms.'

Chris Nau

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