NPA Lab | 2021

Into the Wreck

Esperanza Perkins

Esperanza Perkins was born in Spain and is now based in Surrey. She creates artwork using traditional crochet techniques alongside traditional drawing methods to explore memory and the various relationships within her family lineage, keeping a connection to her family and Spanish heritage.

Kirsten Beazley

Kirsten Beazley has a practice based in painting and drawing, taking much of her inspiration from media stories and images encountered on a daily basis. Interested in directing the viewers gaze back at images lost from public consciousness, Beazley’s practice embraces the banal and the absurd.

Annalisa Hayes

Annalisa Hayes is a painter and sculptor from South Wales, now based in London. With a practice that explores transgression and the human condition, Hayes’ work uses the abstracted human form as a vehicle for challenging predisposed ideas of normativity and aesthetics.

Charcoal and pastel drawing of a deepsea dive with diver being rescued by boat and net

Perkins, Beazley, & Hayes

‘Into the Wreck’ (2021)

Charcoal, ink and pastel on paper

‘Into the Wreck’ was a collaboration between Kirsten Beazley, Esperanza Perkins and Annalisa Hayes—three multidisciplinary artists working across drawing, painting, crochet and sculpture, based in South West London. ‘Into the Wreck’ used Adrienne Rich’s poem, ‘Diving into the Wreck’, and its extended metaphor that compares a deep-sea dive to the struggle for women’s equality, as a starting point.

Perkins, Beazley, & Hayes

‘Into the Wreck’ (2021)

Charcoal, ink and pastel on paper

Charcoal and pastel drawing of deepsea dive with diver being rescued by boat and net

Perkins, Beazley, & Hayes

‘Into the Wreck’ (2021)

Charcoal, ink and pastel on paper

Abstract blue black and flesh tones pastel and watercolour drawing of a human figure

Perkins, Beazley, & Hayes

‘Into the Wreck’ (2021)

Mixed media on paper

In light of recent media coverage on women’s safety, sexual harassment and violence against women in the UK, ‘Diving into the Wreck’ felt especially pertinent. Each artist produced a drawing in response to the poem and passed it onto the next artist who modified, added and responded to the drawing as they wished.

Abstract figure submerged in the ocean pastel drawing

Perkins, Beazley, & Hayes

‘Into the Wreck’ (2021)

Mixed media on paper

Abstract diving figure caught in a net pastel drawing

Perkins, Beazley, & Hayes

‘Into the Wreck’ (2021)

Mixed media on paper

Monochrome pencil drawing of an armour bodice

Perkins, Beazley, & Hayes

‘Into the Wreck’ (2021)

Charcoal and graphite on paper

The outcome was three, rich, multilayered, thematically linked drawings that have served as starting points for further works and opened up new ways of thinking about collaborations and the various modes of artistic practice for each artist. The process of letting a work go, relinquishing any ownership over it and gifting it to another artist in order for it to be reimagined has been a completely new and particularly nurturing experience for each of the artists.

Monochrome pencil and charcoal drawing of an abstract figure wearing an armour bodice

Perkins, Beazley, & Hayes

‘Into the Wreck’ (2021)

Charcoal and graphite on paper

Monochrome charcoal and pencil drawing of an abstract submerged figure wearing an armour bodice

Perkins, Beazley, & Hayes

‘Into the Wreck’ (2021)

Charcoal and graphite on paper

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