Luci Eyers: Narrative and Memory
An Interview: February 2016
Q1: Your work seems to feature a number of archetypes who are living through some existential situation. Could you describe them, why do you choose these figures in these situations for instance.
LE: Well, I think this boils down to decisions I make about how specific or how generic the characters and details within the paintings are. What I am trying to do is inhabit the characters so that they can be identified with but not identifiable. I like watching people, on the bus, the street, in the supermarket or park. I hope to make figures look like they could exist but then they play out imagined scenarios which are often more intense or awkward.
Q2: It seems that you draw from deep and very personal experience with every work, yet the characters you often depict seem to occupy an indeterminate age, somewhere between mid-twenties and mid-forties perhaps. What is the connection, if indeed there is one.
LE: You are right that the paintings do start from my own personal experience but there is a distance and they are never directly autobiographical. My intention here is to be reflective and I whittle things down by working from memory. Memory acts as a form of filter – as much by forgetting or misremembering as by memory itself. Because I work from memory I often draw on the faces I am most familiar with although these are not portraits or biographical either.
Q3: There seems to be the suggestion of many things being not voiced in the scenes you draw. At the same time the work seems to be about relationships between people, with a female lead if you like. Is this something you aim to achieve at the outset, or does the spur for each work come from somewhere else. I guess I should perhaps really ask, what goes through your mind when faced with the white of the paper?
LE: It seems to me that generally there is more left unsaid than said. The paintings look quite specific so it is very important that psychologically they don’t over describe or predetermine the scenario. The paintings aim to be evocative and suggestive but leave a space for viewers to imagine what is going on and what this would mean to them. They do come from a female perspective because I make them. I have strong mind’s eye images and so the white paper is almost like a screen to project onto. However once I start painting those first lines can set the painting off in a slightly different direction altogether because the drawing process is one of continually responding to what is emerging.
Q4: There is also a sense of narrative with each drawing, linked to the different possibilities with time and space. How much is this from the drawing itself, as you actually work on it, and how much, if at all, is it from works by other artists where this might happen. I am thinking of renaissance paintings as well as graphic novels where this is often seen, as well as film.
LE: Narrative is really interesting to me, I like stories, especially stories that seem to be telling one thing but then when you look closer there are other things going on or underlying them. But the most important thing is the sensitivity of the painting and this can override the subject matter; the contrast in handling can create a range from fragility to boldness that transmits differently and I like those emotional possibilities. As with you, I enjoy graphic novels. However although I have always worked in series, I never seem to work in sequence (I have tried and failed to work this way). I particularly enjoy Hogarth’s series eg. The Humours of an Election but my work is never quite as conclusive or didactic. The form of narrative and sense of time I find more interesting can be found in works like Lucas Cranach The Elder’s Garden of Eden (1530) where sequential events are represented within a single landscape so there is the suggestion of time and events playing out although if you don’t know the story then the sequence can become confused. My work either tends to be in a series of loosely connected small events where some pieces act as counterpoints to the others; or a larger single work which is a framework for multiple narratives. I see these as feeling a little like polyphonic opera, where different voices are singing their own tunes simultaneously but even the conflicting voices are interwoven together. Going back to my comment earlier that the painting process is a responsive one, almost like an improvisation, this means that I will often repeat images, with the same starting point and different end results.
Q1: Your work seems to feature a number of archetypes who are living through some existential situation. Could you describe them, why do you choose these figures in these situations for instance.
LE: Well, I think this boils down to decisions I make about how specific or how generic the characters and details within the paintings are. What I am trying to do is inhabit the characters so that they can be identified with but not identifiable. I like watching people, on the bus, the street, in the supermarket or park. I hope to make figures look like they could exist but then they play out imagined scenarios which are often more intense or awkward.
Q2: It seems that you draw from deep and very personal experience with every work, yet the characters you often depict seem to occupy an indeterminate age, somewhere between mid-twenties and mid-forties perhaps. What is the connection, if indeed there is one.
LE: You are right that the paintings do start from my own personal experience but there is a distance and they are never directly autobiographical. My intention here is to be reflective and I whittle things down by working from memory. Memory acts as a form of filter – as much by forgetting or misremembering as by memory itself. Because I work from memory I often draw on the faces I am most familiar with although these are not portraits or biographical either.
Q3: There seems to be the suggestion of many things being not voiced in the scenes you draw. At the same time the work seems to be about relationships between people, with a female lead if you like. Is this something you aim to achieve at the outset, or does the spur for each work come from somewhere else. I guess I should perhaps really ask, what goes through your mind when faced with the white of the paper?
LE: It seems to me that generally there is more left unsaid than said. The paintings look quite specific so it is very important that psychologically they don’t over describe or predetermine the scenario. The paintings aim to be evocative and suggestive but leave a space for viewers to imagine what is going on and what this would mean to them. They do come from a female perspective because I make them. I have strong mind’s eye images and so the white paper is almost like a screen to project onto. However once I start painting those first lines can set the painting off in a slightly different direction altogether because the drawing process is one of continually responding to what is emerging.
Q4: There is also a sense of narrative with each drawing, linked to the different possibilities with time and space. How much is this from the drawing itself, as you actually work on it, and how much, if at all, is it from works by other artists where this might happen. I am thinking of renaissance paintings as well as graphic novels where this is often seen, as well as film.
LE: Narrative is really interesting to me, I like stories, especially stories that seem to be telling one thing but then when you look closer there are other things going on or underlying them. But the most important thing is the sensitivity of the painting and this can override the subject matter; the contrast in handling can create a range from fragility to boldness that transmits differently and I like those emotional possibilities. As with you, I enjoy graphic novels. However although I have always worked in series, I never seem to work in sequence (I have tried and failed to work this way). I particularly enjoy Hogarth’s series eg. The Humours of an Election but my work is never quite as conclusive or didactic. The form of narrative and sense of time I find more interesting can be found in works like Lucas Cranach The Elder’s Garden of Eden (1530) where sequential events are represented within a single landscape so there is the suggestion of time and events playing out although if you don’t know the story then the sequence can become confused. My work either tends to be in a series of loosely connected small events where some pieces act as counterpoints to the others; or a larger single work which is a framework for multiple narratives. I see these as feeling a little like polyphonic opera, where different voices are singing their own tunes simultaneously but even the conflicting voices are interwoven together. Going back to my comment earlier that the painting process is a responsive one, almost like an improvisation, this means that I will often repeat images, with the same starting point and different end results.