Ingrid Calame

(Calame, 20o8)

A fellow artist teacher recommended I look at the work of Ingrid Calame and I found her work to be very interesting both in terms of process and finished product. I thought her use of line was similar to some of my own abstract works although they come from a different starting point.

Calame uses tracing paper to map out the roads, paths and tracks beneath our feet: “She maps every spill, scuff and smudge; every blob of chewing gum, tag of graffiti or splatter of unidentifiable matter” (McLean-Ferris, 2011). She then layers the tracings and draws over them, often in different colors, to create a finished work. She is recording for a little longer the everyday traces of our presence in a unique way:

“The ground beneath our feet is always changing, but Calame offers us her traces for an extended period of time. Write your name, spill your coffee, drag your heels, crash your car: our traces are left all over the street floor. Calame's process relates both to an actual location and to a moment pulled from a moving process” (Berning, 2009). Her work is very abstract and is reminiscent of a topographical map.

On aspect of her work that I found fascinating and very inspiring was the open ended nature of her work. When layering and over drawing her tracings she would often have no idea of the final outcome, the work was very much of the moment. She states that “The final drawings are always a surprise” (Berning, 2009). This seems to me a very liberating way of working and it is something that I am beginning to explore in my own practice. For example, when transforming existing images into new, abstract pieces, I very much work on exploring and experimenting with the different visual elements as they develop in front to me. Once I begin to ‘see’ the image transform into something new, I then become more directed with more of an idea of the end result. However, I have found this open ended approach of letting the experimentation lead the work very exciting, liberating and expressive.

REFERENECES:

ArtBable, 2012. Ingrid Calame, In the Factory. [video online] Available at: http://www.artbabble.org/video/ima/ingrid-calame-factory [Accessed March 2012].

Berning, D., 2009. Artist Ingrid Calame on how she draws. The Guardian, [online] 19th September. Available at: < http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/sep/19/ingrid-calame-on-drawing-tracing > [Accessed March 2012],

Calame, I., (2008). Image: #297 Drawing (Tracings from Buffalo, NY), colour pencil on trace Mylar, 45.7 x 66cm. Courtesy of the artist and James Cohan, NY Available at: < http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/sep/19/ingrid-calame-on-drawing-tracing > [Accessed March 2012].

McLean-Ferris, L., 2011. Ingrid Calame, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh. The Independant [online] 18th August. Available at: < http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/ingrid-calame-fruitmarket-gallery-edinburgh-2339646.html > [Accessed March 2012].