‘Straitjacket for a Child’
Graphite, 910mm x 1530mm
Simply, or only, a graphite rectangle bisected by a line? Ambiguous, the line is made of the same material as the support; it is the paper, transforms the one body into two, two rectangles held still by some magnetic attraction? Stillness is the surface and at the heart. Two graphite rectangles are a straitjacket for the child, its stillness a claustrophobic binding. Magnetism? The straitjacket does the work.
In my beachcombery approach to things I find words to sit with whilst I look around. A problem with theory is its density and scope, and I have always to play catchup. I visit, as it were, between the tides. I picked up this word ‘punctum’. It’s a funny shape and it could come across as a little bit arty. Its origins are in anatomy, meaning a sharp tip. My understanding of Barthes’ use (in Camera Lucida) is that the punctum is that detail of a photograph which ‘wounds’ or ‘bruises’ the viewer in a way that engenders empathy between viewer and object. Graphic, graphite, photographic, the drawing may not be a photograph; a tentative feeling for the idea connected me with what I was doing.
