Rough Cut No. 2, 2021, graphite on paper on foil, 140 x 220 cm

Site visits to open-pit coal mining areas form the starting point for painstaking, semi-sculptural drawings made with graphite on crumpled paper. Slumping, sometimes standing, always damaged in some way, the drawings have a physical presence inviting viewers to experience the fragility and vulnerability of the material world, towards an identification with their own inherent materiality. I draw with graphite on crumpled paper; normally would be considered a mistake and thrown away, here the damage to the paper is revealed and made valuable through careful mark-making. The undrawn part of the paper may look like a seam, comparable to a vein of coal or ore. Not a natural resource to be depleted, the undrawn paper instead becomes a space full of potential, reclaimed for the imagination. www.rachelbacon.com