Knowledge bank

Virginia Verran discusses winning the Jerwood Drawing Prize, the importance of art education and the multifaceted nature of her practice.

Based in North London, artist Virginia Verran studied at Chelsea College of Art, London (1983-84) and Winchester School of Art (1980-83). She has exhibited in a number of solo and group shows, including the Jerwood Drawing Prize 2009, the John Moores Painting Prize, Whitechapel Open, Newlyn Gallery, A21 International, Japan, and Henie-Onstad Kunstsenter, Norway. She teaches at Chelsea College of Art and Design, University College, Falmouth and the Slade School of Art. She is also custodian of the estate of picture editor, photographer and photography historian Bruce Bernard.

How does it feel to be the winner of the Jerwood Drawing Prize 2010?

To win the Jerwood Drawing Prize is a great vote of confidence in the new work I am making. I am very happy about that.

The prize has its roots in academia. Do you think this impacts on the high standard of submissions?

The Jerwood Drawing Prize, since it's inception, has had a huge influence on the increased interest in drawing in art schools and is very respected amongst students, and amongst artists generally. The fact that there is this platform, an open submission, which allows student work to be shown with the work of practicing artists is a great thing, a mutual benefit and a democratic one and is very much part of it's success. 

You also lecture at University College Falmouth, Chelsea College of Art and Design and the Slade School of Art. How does this impact on your practice?

I have always sought to keep the balance in favour of time in the studio and so the teaching I have undertaken since I began in 1986 at Chelsea and 1990 at Falmouth has been in the role of a part-time associate lecturer. This works well and because of this balance I am able to maintain the right degree of enthusiasm and concentration when I walk through the door (of studio or college) that has not changed since I began.

The teaching work I value greatly as it obviously allows the opportunity to regularly discuss the making of art; what lies behind it, the difficulties, the triumphs etc, with a very broad range of people with differing levels of experience in largely supportive environments. I say largely supportive because at this moment dark clouds are gathering in many institutions in the form of savage cuts to Fine Art courses which could greatly threaten the teaching of Fine Art as we know it.

What is it about drawing in particular that interests you?

Drawing allows a hot line to the nervous system, an immediacy not compounded by complex materials and layering. With regard to my own drawing there is a very direct connection with intuition and the ink in the pen is like a vein of liquid mercury.

Your winning piece 'Bolus-Space (signal)' explores an array of different issues. Can you explain these a little further?

This particular work was made partly in my studio in Bethnal Green and partly in a studio in Cill Rialaig in remote South-West Ireland. In it (and the whole series) I have found new images, symbols and signs that relate to global fears and natural wonders and simple abstract invention. Using a nib is exhilarating; something to do with the clarity of line; no fudge, no blurring, no nebulous space. There is still the issue of space, layering of space but in the drawings this is done graphically and in separate stages above and around rather than in compacted layers on top of each other as in the paintings.

I work in a large underground studio in London and am very aware of the potential of layered sound; the worms below, sounds inside the body, the sounds next door, the floor above, the birds outside the window, the screeching cats, the muffled distant traffic, the planes above, the space- ships above that, the whirling debris around them, the trapped and never-ending sounds of Earth in space...and then there is the physical sense of all this. Some of this new work was made entirely in Ireland and a few of these elements still related to the working process.

There was the added sense of natural beauty and wonder; a breathtaking thing, coupled with a realization from absorption in the horizon line of the inherent repetition in history; of fragile borders, overhead threats, fragile economies, fragile ecosystems and a sense of vulnerability brought about by ancient sites, the grey sea, and isolation from reassurance. So I think that drawing allows for a greater connection with direct and fleeting thought patterns, which enable a palpable sense of liberty and discovery.

What's next?

Studio and more drawing followed by attention to painting.

Jack Hutchinson, Virginia Verran

Jack Hutchinson is an artist, writer and educator. A specialist on the role of digital technology within the visual arts, he is Communications Officer for AIR: Artists Interaction and Representation through a-n The Artists Information Company. His writing has featured in a diverse range of publications, including Dazed and Confused, Garageland, Guardian Culture Professionals, Twin Magazine, a-n Magazine and Schweizer Kunst. Based in London at Bow Arts Trust, he is an active campaigner for artistic, legislative and economic measures that enhance artists' working lives and professional status. His multi-disciplinary visual practice has featured in solo and group exhibitions across the UK.

jackhutchinsonair@googlemail.com | www.jackjhutchinson.wordpress.com

First published: a-n.co.uk December 2010