Alexandra Blum, ‘Act’, graphite on paper, 42 x 59.4 cm, 2023. Photo credit: John Howard Davies
‘Act’ was exhibited at the Summer Exhibition 2024 at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, 18 June - 18 August 2024
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Detail from: Alexandra Blum, ‘Act’, graphite on paper, 42 x 59.4 cm, 2023. Photo credit: John Howard Davies
After sudden rain, looking out of the window onto the industrial estate below, I glimpsed the reflection of the corner of a warehouse in a puddle created by the downpour. This fleeting reflection became the starting point of my drawing. Next, my eye travelled along a line of crumbling tarmac towards two people hurriedly loading a car...
Detail from: Alexandra Blum, ‘Act’, graphite on paper, 42 x 59.4 cm, 2023. Photo credit: John Howard Davies
....my pencil then moved on to vans and people huddling on benches for a chilly lunch break. Drawing feels like a journey. I use each form I observe as a stepping stone to reach the next, so that I discover the landscape gradually, as if feeling my way through the dark, rather than creating a perspectival plan of the entire space from a fixed view point at the outset of the drawing.
Detail from: Alexandra Blum, ‘Act’, graphite on paper, 42 x 59.4 cm, 2023. Photo credit: John Howard Davies
Chance juxtapositions between forms often occur as I draw, making it feel close to a collaging process. This means that narrative emerges not only through the recording of observed details, but also through chance encounters between different sections of drawing. When drawing Act, for example, the letters ‘act’ (part of a sign reading ‘impact’ on the side of a van) suddenly became a command when seen in conjunction with the figures in other areas of the image. Most figures in the drawing are dutifully going about their business, but the silhouetted figure (standing on the edge of the 5-mph speed limit ground marking) seems immobile, incapable of taking action. It began to feel as if the silhouetted figure was outside of the flow of time in which the other figures jointly participated.