Drawing
Buckets Of Grey Water
written pen and ink drawing over 70 salvaged and recycled A4 pages, 210 x 208cm, 2023. Also re-produced as a limited edition art book.
when I was
a kid
my father
always
emptied
our bathwater
into buckets
to use for the toilet
instead of flushing
never just pull the plug
buckets of water
buckets of water everywhere
buckets of grey water
lasted
a few days
from bath day to bath day
buckets remained
with bits of water left
when full
the buckets where heavy
and cumbersome
a good aim was needed to pour
some of the
buckets were not buckets
but
other
bucket sized
vessels
once
I got caught peeing
into the bathwater
so nice
and warm
letting go
my mother
became
very angry
angry
there were also
buckets
in the garden
buckets
and big barrels
collecting
rainwater
barrels of rainwater
for the vegetable
garden
my mother
needs
no water
anymore
the soil
takes care of
her
now
my father
still collects
water
but mostly
tears
in buckets
everywhere
a page from 'buckets of grey water', the drawing is intended to be viewed from both front and back.
'buckets of grey water' is the first instalment of what the artist describes as a visual autobiography, based on her poem of a simple, yet deeply personal childhood memory that reflects notions of recycling, care and grief. Featuring 70 pages of A4 paper of text-based drawings created on recycled and salvaged A4 paper, the exhibition celebrates the launch of Radmacher's book by the same name. Consisting of all 70 pages of the artworks, including prints of the front and backside of the paper to replicate the original pieces, the book represents another artwork in itself.
The text is written by hand in red ink, often bleeding through the thin pieces of paper which the artist either inherited from deceased family members or found as discarded materials in shelves. Readers are invited to follow a string of words or snippets from a sentence that sprawl across the entire A4 page in a series of repetition, with each page dedicated to a new word or short phrase derived from the artist's poem. The paper works can either be perceived as literature, or a large fragile drawing with text that is not immediately legible, and therefore, serving as a visual element more than written content.
There is an imperfection to the almost obsessive process of writing or mark making manifested on each sheet of paper, as well as a calming, meditative quality, both represented by the artist's act of creation, as well as the viewer's act of reading or skimming through the script. - Cila Brosius, curator.