Sarah Louise Baker MAArtist Statement
Sarah Louise Baker uses tactile and repetitive mark-making techniques in a diverse artistic practice. Drawing and printing act as transformative vehicles: expressing or uncovering the unseen. The creative role is regarded as mission to reveal what is hidden in plain sight in order to raise awareness. Specific social or ecological topics are brought into the light and given tangible form. For example, the screen print Cargo (2022) takes a literal stance to human cargo both historical and modern. This four-meter-long plaited mesh of hair is indicative of modern slavery and its lethal entrapments. A second work Tiptoe (2022) reflects upon whitewashed British History in relation to The Transatlantic Slave Trade. The idea behind these works is to instigate discussion about these sensitive and rarely seen issues amongst those standing before them. Another arm of practice involves a more automatic exploration of the line. Contrary to art traditions of representation, these finely drawn threads embrace the imperfections and irregularities of the hand in rapid motion. Scanned and combined, these incomplete marks become dense layers with a degree of optical illusion. This work embodies chaos whilst still holding onto a sense of order. Such practice-based research includes the analogue and digital study of Zoetropic sculpture. Historically understood as a ‘wheel of life’ these spinning artforms relate the physical and numerical. Verge (2022) offers the viewer an immersive experience that draws attention to the environmental issues facing our planet. Drawings and colours overlap and conjoin in ways that articulate delicate interdependencies and the elements needed to sustain life. Influenced by the techniques and repetitive systemising of Sol LeWitt and Yayoi Kusama, the act of freeing the canvas from the frame, Sam Gilliam, and topically inspired by the work of Hew Locke, Kara Walker, and Susan Stockwell, this artist continues to revisit the slave trade and colonialism alongside philosophy, scientific discovery, and the environment. Sarah Louise Baker |
All images are copyright of the artist Sarah Louise Baker