Nic Gear Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom
I have lived and walked in both urban & natural environments from London to Staffordshire and currently near Nottingham. In 2015 I completed an MA in Fine Art, through using my culture of walking, and I’m inspired by ‘edgeland’ landscapes. Drawing on the materiality of landscape, and with techniques such as frottage I consider notions around ‘mapping’ and the ‘reality’ of what we see
My practice uses notions around drawing a line, both in the physicality of steps taken as I walk in ‘edgeland’ landscapes, and in the transcribed responses to these places in the process of a drawn gesture. My investigations focus on walking the ‘Edgelands’ of Coxmoor, a liminal space close to where I live, set between urban and rural landscapes, observing the ‘seasons’ of this forgotten landscape. A key element of the work is using the materiality of the spaces in which I’ve stepped into. From creating found debris collections to making handmade oak gall ink, along with many photographs taken, all have an indexical quality to them that speak of place; its' theatre of memory. My gestural marks become furrows, inscriptions, marks, traces, in part facsimiles which imitate the natural world. These are combined with the collections using and highlighting the impact of the man made to become a wider metaphor to the challenges of the worlds environments, in which we live. Materials within work also makes links to other artists work in particular using plaster in various ways, which mines on the influence of Whiteread, Hepworth and Moore within my practice Historical references to materiality is also vital to the work. Oak gall ink used links to the influence of William Wordsworth and his poetic walking practice. This ink has also been used in this nations key documents such as the Magna Carta thus making links with our past that influence the future. Ludwig Wittgenstein thoughts on reality, what we see, what we choose not to see are part of my journey and like the artist Puosette-Dart I use the iconography of the circle as an expression of absolute truth and wholeness, which I experience when stepping out into a landscape.
Artwork
The Hand [Boundary Lines], Mixed media, 2022, TBC
Undertow, Found Object Collage, 2020, n/a
Heart of Matter [Pierced], Sewn Collage Drawing, 2020, £395
Crucible [with Five Memory Stones], Cast Plaster Sculpture, 2020, n/a
Coombe Time [Embedded], Sculpted Frottage Collage, 2020, £465
Alter Fragment [with Touchstone], Cast Plaster Sculpture, 2020, n/a
Alpha / Omega, Cast Plaster Sculpture , 2020, n/a
Between [Twilight Lines] Diptych, Drawing, 2022
Echos [A Diptych], Drawing, 2022
Confined & Free [A Flow Diptych], Drawing, 2022