| previous | The challenge of a two-dimensional surface Big Black Can you go for an empty sheet of paper? Can you challenge the impenetrability of a two-dimensional surface? Those are for me the crucial questions that are raised by the work of Alexandra Roozen. There is an underlying tension in the drawings, etches and reliefs that seems to stem from an ambivalent attitude of the artist towards the image. These are works that are apparently calm in their 'all over' structure, but where there is tension below the surface. They have an ambiguous relationship with themselves which makes them intriguing. Roozen uses techniques such as sharpening and drilling to arrive at her images. Paper sheets are worked with mechanical power. The opposition between the ‘hard’ tool – the drilling machine – and the ‘soft’ surface – the paper – can’t be bigger. Destruction as creative tool. Where it is not about theatrical, expressive gestures, but where the works are constructed calmly, step by step. In a labour-intensive process. Besides these conventional etching and drawing techniques, she uses traditional methods: pencil in hand, directly on paper. With minute precision, she fills the sheet to an almost completely black surface. Not everything is covered with drawing; small parts of the white paper remain open. The black surfaces that appear almost unfathomable at first sight reveal spatiality and lightness on closer inspection. On the one hand, the drawings depict the surface as illusion by suggesting depth and volume through shading and degrees of grey. On the other hand, the spatiality is literally emphasized in reliefs of rubber that show a play of light and shadow. From these different angles, Roozen fixes the attention on one common point: finding an entrance, a direction in which to look, to break through the closedness of the flat surface in this way. A.J., February 1, 2010 Translated from the Dutch by Rose Arora |
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