NPA Lab | 2021

 

A Convergence to Nothing

 

Sandra Camargo

Sandra Camargo  is a self-taught, stone sculptor from Colombia. Her work has been selected for prestigious exhibitions such as the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol and Royal Cambrian Academy in Wales. She lives and works in Kent.

Dave McCorry

Dave McCorry is a Scottish artist, living and working in Manchester. His practice is mainly centred around drawing and mark making, exploring space, place, moment and memory.

Black soapstone sculpture; an irregular oval shape with a hole in the middle, allowing the light through.

Sandra Camargo

‘Genesis’ (2020)

Black Soapstone (52 x 39 x 30cm)

The two artists met and became familiar with each other’s work through the NPA and discovered a conceptual affinity in their independently created pieces, Genesis (2020) and How To Disappear Completely; parts I-VI (2021). Genesis (2020) is an exploration of the beginning of humankind, from nothing to existence.

Photograph of a gallery wall where six a3 sized mixed media images of a rockface, all created in different ways, hang.

Dave McCorry

How To Disappear Completely; parts I-VI’ (2021)

Mixed media (193 x 42cm)

How To Disappear Completely; parts I-VI (2021) is an abstract, mixed-media piece created in response to the rapid demise and early death of a friend and fellow artist. The work utilises the lines and marks seen in the surface of a rock face photographed around the moment when news of the death was received. The piece explores themes of (among others) birth, life, death, strength, fragility, fear, illness, death, memory and non-existence.

Stone sculpture on a wooden board with five elements: Birth, Life, Illness, Death/Memory and Nothingness.

Sandra Camargo

‘Remember You Are Dust And To Dust You Shall Return’ (2021)

Mixed media, hand-carved soapstone, soapstone dust, hand-carved American red oak wood, and an inkwell glass circa 1880s (67 x 12.5 x 17.5cm)

(To Liz Thompson who I never met, but wish I had) 

Although unable to physically meet, the collaboration was conducted online through conversations exploring the above themes. Work was created by the artists independently in their own mediums further exploring this shared concept. My work is a 3D response to How To Disappear Completely: parts I-VI (2021). The sculpture has four elements representing stages of existence, arranged on a wooden board. Three are hand-carved stone sculptures and the other is an inkwell filled with stone dust.

Composite photo of details from ‘Remember You Are Dust And To Dust You Shall Return’. Stone sculpture of Birth (a small sphere 4.5 cm) and Life a sphere (10 cm), which is shiny with a healthy shape. Stone sculpture of Illness (a deformed shape (8cm) with faults) and Death (an inkwell filled with ashes). Detail of sculpture: Inkwell and Empty Space representing Death and Nothingness

Sandra Camargo

‘Remember You Are Dust And To Dust You Shall Return’ [Details] (2021)

Mixed Media, hand-carved soapstone, soapstone dust, hand-carved American red oak wood, and an inkwell glass circa 1880s (67 x 12.5 x 17.5cm) 

Birth: The beginning… Birth is a small sphere (4.5cm), which develops into Life.

Life: You grow, you learn, you achieve, you shine, you love; a bigger sphere (10cm) shiny with a healthy shape, which decays into illness.
Illness: You suffer, you hate, you fight, you lose; a smaller deformed shape (8cm) with scars and faults.
Death: You leave, you are missed, you are remembered, you are forgotten; an old inkwell filled with ashes/dust from the stones collected while carving.
Nothing: The fifth position on the wooden board is empty.

Artwork called Swim through these fires to stay in this world; a large four part abstract drawing denoDng a oval shape with various shadings

Dave McCorry

‘Swim Through These Fires To Stay In This World’ (2022)

Mixed media (85 x 60cm)

Artwork called All Music Tends Toward Silence; a large four part drawing in an oval shape of gold, silver, white and red lines on a black background

Dave McCorry

‘All Music Tends Toward Silence’ (2022)

Mixed media (85 x 60cm)

 

Two large artworks, both with a similar oval shape, hanging next to each other on a gallery wall.

Dave McCorry

‘Swim Through These Fires To Stay In This World’ (2022)

‘All Music Tends Toward Silence’ (2022)

[Installation view]

‘Swim Through These Fires To Stay in This World’ (2022) and ‘All Music Tends Toward Silence’ (2022) are two, four-part, framed drawings that utilise the shape, lines and textures of the opposite sides of the sculpture Genesis (2020) as the basis for the work. The mixed-media drawings invite you to notice and interpret the various qualities of the surfaces, mediums and mark-making methods, suggesting and exploring the previous themes but now seen as a flow of opposite, interlocking, related aspects of existence. The framing of the individual four drawings that make up the larger work(s) can be read as both stages of the journey through life and as a unified whole, all floating in a beautiful void of non- existence.

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