DRAWING iN tHE DIGITAL AGE

Giclée prints on Hahnemühle paper and gouache 2010

Since the beginning of time, artists have engaged with the new technologies of their time. In Drawing in the Digital Age Alice experiments with the creative potential of 3D-modelling software to create a series of hand-coloured drawings. This series marks a shift in her practice from a primarily hands-on technique to a technological approach. Alice experiments with different methods of art production, employing computer-aided processes in combination with the traditional skills of hand colouring.

Drawn to the beauty and creative potential of grid structures, and extending her interest in mathematics and geometry – in particular the depiction of three-dimensional space in two-dimensions – Alice uses the curvilinear grids of 3D-modelling software to create drawings that give the illusion of form. This software is typically used to create architectural models and plans, however Alice is interested in these images as artworks in themselves.

While Alice’s use of modern technology in this series engages with notions of the contemporary digital age, the inspiration for the work is based on an inquiry into the past – specifically, the Italian Renaissance, when perspective systems were first mapped out mathematically. The perspective drawings of Leon Battista Alberti, Filippo Brunelleschi and Paolo Uccello led Alice to consider the shift in drawing devices from the Renaissance to the present.