Louisa Theunissen

Statement

I work mainly in compressed charcoal making drawings that depict a place that, although now derelict, still holds a sense of having once been occupied and busy. In my work I aim to capture that elusive atmosphere which can be felt in such a place. Communicating through drawing, emotions that words cannot express. Through the use of vigorous mark-making it is intended to generate a sense of motion and the possibility of an imminent happening. The scrawling lines create a feeling of a changing landscape and an on-going narrative.  The building up of layers of dense black marks creates a thick claustrophobic darkness that contrasts with areas of whiteness where the marks have been worked away.  The contrasting whiteness is a welcome relief from the oppressive blackness and hints at the possibility of hope for the future. Perhaps only for a fleeting moment, of something almost indefinable