to fill a Gap, 2023, scanned notebook pages on silk, approx. 0.5 x 2m

To fill a Gap considers the non-linear nature of healing, and the larger shapes of experience that show up only over considerable time. This work is comprised of sketchbook drawings which span over 5 years. These simple pen line drawings are scanned and printed on silk 1:1 scale with the original drawings. These silk duplicates are much more delicate than the original drawings, and are arranged to form a continuous line. This line suggests a continuous movement and a direction, but this line is actually made of stop-starts and long pauses in time between each drawing (years in fact). This work looks at the pace of healing, both physical and psychological, and attempts to visualise its non-linear nature. A double-edged speed is also central to the materiality of the work, as the original sketchbook drawings took time and care to make, and the digital printing on silk is a quick and disembodied process.

This work is essentially made of ‘gaps’ of time, and the remaining fragments are joined together through the line drawings to form a false document of time. These gaps are as important as they are private, but they are as much as part of the final work as the pieces of silk.

The title of this work comes from the Emily Dickinson poem:

To fill a Gap
Insert the Thing that caused it —
Block it up
With Other — and 'twill yawn the more —
You cannot solder an Abyss
With Air. 

Photos courtesy Rosina Possingham