You Between

 

 

You Between, Marek Milde - 3

You Between, Marek Milde, 2006,  denim from used jeans, 48″x 48″

 

 

You Between explores the themes of identity and personal integrity developed through interaction with sites and places.  The series You Between are images made out of denim taken from used jeans, stretched on frames. In this project the drawings are developed on a canvas, which in form of cloth, became part of a bodily experience, the technique of its process utilizes the events and interactions with the physical surrounding. The images form progressively by wearing away the denim, which absorbs the experiences and movements of the wearer such as walking, leaning toward wall, touching etc. creating in the process specific and personal patterns. The forms, soft, cloudy and enigmatic seem abstract, but are in nature very concrete, tracing people’s actions, situations, connecting events and places resulting in a version of an individual portrait.

While these images are an evidence of the physical interaction of the human body, their visuality  also embodies an elusive quality present in the inner life of the individual, reflecting a presence that is not solely physical but extends in to the psychological realm of evolving identity, growing with experiencing. The process of its creation stands in an analogy to mental process of shaping individuality, which similarly to wearing a cloth is exposed to staining and abrasion – the intensity of the rhythm of life.

The You Between series use the two basic methods of conventional drawing, the accumulation of form through build-up and the dispersion – melting away through erasing. However, it omits a purpose driven action while employing naturally occurring formative process driven by the events of life.  Rather then using representation You Between explores the idea of a drawing functioning to present the reality, by bringing the act of drawing close to the happenings of life. From this perspective, mundane events become creative acts, in which the act of drawing is something ever-present, the primeval way of responding to the world.