"Touch/Restraint", Emily Andrews (2016), pen, acrylic, mixed media
Andrews' work is a practice of meditation; working primarily with pen, colored pencil, and acrylic, she leaves space for the media to lead in unexpected directions. Yet, unifying themes emerge; here, for instance, modes of touch between the sensory and the cellular. Two collections are interwoven here:
In her mixed media series "Studies in Cells," Andrews' renditions of cervical cells bring scientific curiosity together with feminist questions of representation and autonomy. What kind of anatomy -- which bodies, which cells -- can be touched? And, who controls them?
In "Studies in Touch and Restraint," Andrews considers touch at the cellular level, with energetic lines presenting tenuous threads of connection, the neurons that fire when we touch (or restrain ourselves from touching) a given thing. These lines pull one forward and back, through the hairline faults of habit, charging everyday relations with a receptivity that has its own history, and its own need for mediative release.
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