Someone elses back of the head drawings. 'notice series'. Interesting way of looking at it.
NOTICE SERIES
This series is composed of sixteen nontraditional portraits; each life-size drawing is of a person’s head back and shoulders. The charcoal drawings are mounted on canvas that sits on the wall like a stage, unsheltered by glass. The Notice series all started with a simple question: “If I walked into a room filled with these portraits, would I feel ignored?” The opposite happened. After the first four portraits were complete, I submitted them for critique. Instead of being ignored, those viewing the work for the first time felt they were sharing a gaze as part of a group. They have a unifying effect for the viewer. The white space connected each portrait and can be read as a marvelous light in the spiritual realm or a white void of nothingness. The presence of the group became an invitation to look. The common experience of waiting in a checkout line provided the opportunity to really examine the portraits and get to know the subject in an intimate space. Like arriving at the conclusion that one of these subjects could own a cat or dog based on the animal hair present on their shirt,
This series is composed of sixteen nontraditional portraits; each life-size drawing is of a person’s head back and shoulders. The charcoal drawings are mounted on canvas that sits on the wall like a stage, unsheltered by glass. The Notice series all started with a simple question: “If I walked into a room filled with these portraits, would I feel ignored?” The opposite happened. After the first four portraits were complete, I submitted them for critique. Instead of being ignored, those viewing the work for the first time felt they were sharing a gaze as part of a group. They have a unifying effect for the viewer. The white space connected each portrait and can be read as a marvelous light in the spiritual realm or a white void of nothingness. The presence of the group became an invitation to look. The common experience of waiting in a checkout line provided the opportunity to really examine the portraits and get to know the subject in an intimate space. Like arriving at the conclusion that one of these subjects could own a cat or dog based on the animal hair present on their shirt,
viewers could become part of the group while remaining the voyeur. I realized that creating the sense of the anonymous gives the viewer permission to safely join the group, engage, and project one's self into the work. The anonymity becomes a capacitor for reflection. The content was open enough for the viewer to project his or her own assumptions to questions that were unanswered. What are they looking at? What are they waiting for? Who are they? Then more questions arose: What do people ignore? Why? What do they notice? Why? As a whole the series became a series of questions. When displayed as a group a viewer or group of viewers multiply and sustain the work. It’s repetitive. Looking at the back of someone looking at the back of someone else, etc., looking toward infinity. To disengage the piece and walk away sets you apart from the group. There’s a certain inclusive versus exclusive experience that intrigues me. There’s a concealed identity, a veiling, plus a personal and public duality that led my research forward to the Box series.
- Craig Hawkins 2009
- Craig Hawkins 2009
