Helen Cass, 'Woven Drawing'

Ink and paper… I love that paper is such a simple material invented to record and carry information, it is everywhere and universally absorbed by every culture, from shopping lists to global treaties! I love the beauty and history of paper documents. Paper is such an ancient technology, and it can be absorbed back into the earth. I often think of Richard Serra’s ‘Verb list’ and get excited about all the possibilities available when working with paper. 

In this series of woven drawings, I transmute the drawing surface by folding, staining with ink and then drying with sunlight or smudging with rain. I enjoy using paper as an active surface, exploring folding, scoring, staining, tearing, drawing, and weaving, bring back together fragments from these processes. 

Repetition is integral to the making of the work and is an integral part of human existence, as our lives are structured through our repeated acts. The repetitive process determines the aesthetic of the image, I want the form the drawings take to be purely from the process of their making. 

Helen Cass (b.1974 Ludlow) Studied B.F.A at The Ruskin School of Fine art and Drawing University of Oxford (1993-96) and MA in Fine Art at Aberystwyth, University of Wales (1999-2000). Has worked in Education alongside studio practice since 2000. Currently member of ‘Fold’ Artists’ Collective (Artists working in Rural Environments). Selected Exhibitions include ‘Linescapes’ (2008) and ‘Surface Tensions’ (2006) at Jaggedart, London, ‘Linear Expression’ at Gallery 57, Arundel. Recently included in ‘Lines of Empathy’ project exhibited at Patrick Heide, London and Close Ltd, Somerset. Awarded the Drawing Prize at the RWA Open in 2023. 

She lives and works in Herefordshire, UK