Nirbhaya Drawing Series

2015 -

Rubber latex, charcoal, graphite powder, dry pigment on paper, 32 x 22 inches each

photographic documentation by Jean Vong

Essay Excerpt

How does drawing calibrate to its purpose? A first step toward forming a coherent response is to recognize that drawing serves different purposes within Weiss’ practice; thereby demonstrating her belief in its efficacy. At one end of the spectrum, modest preparatory drawings explore initial ideas from which greater ambition unfolds. Function articulates purpose, allowing the work to exist having achieved the task it was meant to fulfill. For example, a drawing for Weiss’ current project Nirbhaya, like an architect’s rendering, provides basic measurements and a scale for the proposed structure. Other drawings isolate specific motifs in order to explore and map ideas contained within this project. Nirbhaya III takes the female figure that is central to the construction and views it from behind. This form is a leitmotif in Weiss’ visual language where it embodies the artist’s principal concerns relating to the body as a site of profound temporal and metaphysical expression. [to read entire text press here]

Mark McDonald, Drawing Consciousness: Monika Weiss in Monika Weiss-Nirbhaya, Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko, 2021, pp. 54 - 76

Publications

Monika Weiss-Nirbhaya, Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko, 2021