Statement for exhibition at MAC Belfast 2021

The works in this show span a period of 15 years.

The large ink drawings on paper were done between 2006-10.

The map drawing in 2019, latex works between 2019-20 and the more recent fabric works cover the period from the first lockdown in May 2020 to now.

Almost all the works, mostly drawings and books from the last 30 years hover around formlessness, writing, stains left from bodily fluids and stigmata like appearances located in an in-between state of consciousness and slumber. Many of the half recognisable figures are in repose, neither figurative nor abstract, it’s an intermediary condition.

In this show, the ink drawings from 2006-10 fold into each other as one continuous movement. They start with an autobiographical reference; witnessing the bathing, wrapping the body in a white shroud and burial of a person close to me, the body laid out on muddy earth and then covered. I imagined how the body slowly lost it’s form, eaten by creatures as it decayed. From this point on drawings coil and move.

Latex works continue in the same general direction. Where the figures drawn in ink were often asleep or dead, I see the latex works as a skinning, removal of the outer layer, the surface of the body that holds everything inside in-together has been flayed.

In the most recent fabric works the shroud seems to have reappeared as found pieces of fabric, often previously used or left as remnants which are sold cheaply. Some of them have had lives as table linens, curtains, bed covers, dresses etc. Stitching is both holding together what otherwise might fall apart as well as text, note or as an entry.

I have been thinking about these more like montages. Much like the map drawing which was a piece of paper on which I worked to make other works.

I did not determine how these fabrics or this paper on the table began their lives. I’m bringing forward objects that were left aside, half completed or represent aspirations.

It’s a detour.

Maya Balcioglu
Dungeness, 2021