What happens when we take up a pencil and attempt to draw something? Why are we compelled to periodically look down at the paper to check the accuracy of what we have drawn? What is the relationship between hand and eye and how precisely does the brain mediate between what the eye sees and the hand delivers? Can this slippage between perception and representation be monitored, controlled and disciplined?
These are the kind of issues that preoccupy London-based British artist Claude Heath, whose experiments into the psychological processes involved in the practice of representation have marked him out as one of…
What happens when we take up a pencil and attempt to draw something? Why are we compelled to periodically look down at the paper to check the accuracy of what we have drawn? What is the relationship between hand and eye and how precisely does the brain mediate between what the eye sees and the hand delivers? Can this slippage between perception and representation be monitored, controlled and disciplined?
These are the kind of issues that preoccupy London-based British artist Claude Heath, whose experiments into the psychological processes involved in the practice of representation have marked him out as one of the most innovative artists of his generation.
Born in London in 1964, Heath studied philosophy at King’s College London from 1983-86, but eventually channelled his inquiring mind towards art. Drawing is central to Heath’s practice. He has made drawings while blindfold, using touch as his only means of assimilating the contours of his subject. This concern with the haptic nature of the creative process has, for Heath, made the territory between drawing and sculpture a fertile realm to explore.
More recently, the artist has also experimented with stereoscopic aerial photography, and here again he is interested in the process of recognition that connects the image of, say, Ben Nevis seen from above, with the resulting representations. Heath has described how he became interested in aerial photography as a subject matter for drawing:
‘The starting point was my wanting to see if I could find (within the library of aerial photography at the University of Cambridge) a shale mound called a ‘bing’ in a mining area of Scotland, that the artist John Latham had decided to name as a work ‘Niddrie Woman’ in the 1970’s. It was and is a set of these ‘bings’ which looked like a woman from the air. I thought it would be interesting to look at the photographs of it, perhaps draw it, but couldn’t find pictures of them in the library. I was shown the stereoscopic apparatus in the library, where vertical shots that partially overlap can be seen with the striking illusion of depth. I then found some other man-made locations to draw, a quarry, and an oil refinery, both in Scotland. Finally, to see what fuller depth would be like in stereo-viewing I started looking at Ben Nevis. You have the impression that you are looking down on a real scene (except it is in black and white and seems to be in miniature). It was a little like looking at a real landscape, but in this case it felt miniaturised, like you could easily reach out and touch it all. I drew without taking my eyes from the stereoscope, which is why the drawings are not exact or measured. It’s an open question as to whether I would be able to recognise one of these places having drawn them, if I ever actually went there.’
Heath was a prizewinner in the 1997 John Moores Exhibition, was the first artist-in-residence at the prestigious Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, and in 2002-03 was named Artist Fellow at Kettle’s Yard and Christ’s College, Cambridge. He is widely represented in many UK public collections, and has also exhibited in the USA where he is represented by Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, and also in Europe, including Lokaal 01, Holland, and the Kunsthalle Baden-Baden.
