MADELEINE WOOD

Books of Left Hand are part of an ongoing project that began in January 2019. The handmade sketchbook series are all done with my non-dominant hand, providing the drawings with a childlike tension between the unruly and the direct.

 

It is through drawing that I can really identify myself and make sense of different aspects of emotions that I find hard to verbalise. In this way the Books of Left Hand series act like a diary; expressions of my mind that exist purely in the visual. 

 

When installed the Books of Left Hand are interactive, the viewer invited to flick through and read the books. Entering the books from any direction, the viewer is invited to handle the work, encouraging an intimacy that echoes the private nature of how they were made. Hopefully helping the viewer to connect with the work; allowed an intimate look into my mind.

 

Through this I aim to break the boundaries between the passive spectator and still art object. Books are meant to be read. I understand the installation of Books of Left Hand  also to be a provocation against the sketchbook not being valued as ‘finished’ art works.