Glitter Ball showroom & projects

Drawn In comprises a selection of works in progress for the Arts Council England funded project Drawing Songs.

Elena Thomas works through themes of touch, relationships, and cause and effect - how one person has an effect on another. This might be knowing, or not: lifelong, or fleeting.

The drawings are abstract, the metaphor for her themes lies in the materiality of the drawings, and the performance of their creation. Materials are repelled from each other, and the surface, or combine to form something new. How the ink is either absorbed by heavy watercolour paper, or slides along the surface of tracing paper holds the essence of a relationship.

The songs provide a narrative of the ideas that occur whilst drawing. The sounds made by the ink nibs, graphite or charcoal are recorded, and manipulated to form rhythms and inspire melodies. The recordings play in the gallery, and live performance adds to the understanding of that narrative.

These works will eventually become a larger body of recordings to be used in installation of the finished visual pieces, and as live performances, as Drawing Songs in Autumn/Winter 2021.

Elena Thomas is an artist living and working in Stourbridge, United Kingdom.