drawing | SABA ASKARI

5 hours (slumber)

charcoal, graphite (32'' x 65'')

7 hours

charcoal, graphite (30'' x 66'')

In slumber series (2017 - ongoing), I record my body’s unconscious movements during uninterrupted periods of sleep. I prepare for this private performance by attaching charcoal to the inside and outside of my arms, legs, and onto my joints and lay down on a sheet of paper on the floor. Unconscious mark making, smudging, and wiping materializes sleep into an image that captures pressure, motion, space, and time.

I have little control over the image I wake up to, however my complete control over the parameters of its creation allow me to harness entropy and make it my own.

3 hours

charcoal, graphite (28.5'' x 66'')

A specific night's sleep does not dissipate into a distant void of regularity, but instead validates patterns of my own existence. Sleep is transformed from biological necessity into a method of production.

20 minute nap, forehead

charcoal (11'' x 8.5'')

eisegesis II

ink, marker, graphite (36'' x 48'')

Series of drawings involving ink-soaked cantaloupe rolled on paper. Thin ink lines are then added by hand in a futile effort to regain control over image // composition.

booties (in collaboration with Ariana W.)

ink, marker, plastic (20'' x 12'')

eisegesis I

ink, graphite (72'' x 48'')

self-portrait with make-up (back / front)

makeup, thread (8'' x 11'')

makeup on violently distressed canvas, partially mended with thread

Paper cut free association

blood, ballpoint pen