‘ How readily our thoughts swarm upon a new object, lifting it a little way, as ants carry a blade of straw so feverishly, and then leave it.....Oh! dear me, the mystery of life; The inaccuracy of thought! The ignorance of humanity! To show how very little control of our possessions we have—what an accidental affair this living is after all our civilization’

 

                  Virginia Woolf, The Mark on the Wall, 1921

 

 

 A 9-piece collection of drawings made to re-interpret Japanese classic novel Tale of Genji (the 11th century) from the perspective of a reader living in the 21st century. Drawn on paper with fine liners. It is inspired by Virginia Woolf’s ‘Stream of Consciousness’ narrative discourse, which creates maps tracing the freely flowing, shifting imaginations and emotions triggered by the plot of the novel. The compositions are living plants growing into their shapes from the freely expanding lines, shapes and dots. Characters of now and ancient mingle with each other weaving into a dense web. Figures compete for attention deconstructing the single visual centre. Shapes are the material of thoughts breaking away from fixed outlines into uncertainty. Lines are streams following the ups and downs of the moods. In the ceaseless stream of consciousness, we see what we choose to see.