The Contemplative Series, 2021-2023

75cm x 105cm 

Contemplative 2021, is a series of works that investigates body language, what is revealed by a simple hand gesture or may not be revealed, open for interpretation. With a keen interest in documenting the details, rather than providing the viewer with the full picture, Jodie Wingham’s Mokulito print looks at the subtle clues our gestures can reveal and how these can be read. The hands have often been considered visual signs to others about what we may be feeling at that particular moment in time, here they are gripping each other as if praying however, the narrative is left to the viewer to decipher. Large in scale the hands demand attention, filling the space, each detail and line carefully documented to be investigated. The inspiration behind the pieces and their blue tones comes from Albrecht Durer’s praying hands, a study of a Religious nature that shows the texture and form of the hands perfectly. Contemplative may not be religious but there is a religious undertone, one of contemplation, the oval nature of the image is used to reference traditional religious and iconoclastic paintings. The blue provides both a calming effect but also one of melancholy, this is further referenced in the grain of the wood appearing like waves in the image linking to the calmness of water. The imagery of the series is one person alone, the poses are ones of reflection and it is the artists intention to produce a reflective response from the viewer, to think what the body language reveals and spend longer engaging with an image.

Mokulito or what is known as Wood Lithography is a relatively new technique within printmaking originating in the 1970’s in Japan. The process itself is labour intensive creating the image from the artists own photographs, transferring this onto a plywood plate, processing and leaving it for several weeks to mature and then printing the image for the final result. The process allows for seductive washes and marks to be created which is commonly associated with the lithographic technique, the material allows for another element to be included, the visual reference of the wooden grain. Specifically chosen for this body of work, the process allows the woodgrain to become part of the image, these delicate lines bare a visual similarity to the lines of our hands referencing back to the image. What this particular gesture reveals is left open to question, asking whether what is revealed refers to a universal language we all come to understand and be able to read or is based more on our subjective experiences.