Elemental Things
Solo exhibition, PDX Contemporary, 2023
The works in this exhibition developed through multiple, successive actions and gestures, each move informed by the last. Ink drawings made by pouring and guiding ink across a surface were then excised, freed from their grounds to become sculptures. Molded metallic reliefs that at first glance appear to be formed by great force, perhaps involving an industrial process, turn out to be ink drawings made on the back of a luminous, lightweight sheet of paper.
Watkins’ practice is rooted in a deep engagement with the transformation of materials. Through meticulous and embodied forms of touch and transference, she pushes materials such as paper and ink to reveal something unexpected, yet true, about their nature. Key to her practice is the desire to find ways to hand off a part of the creative process to forces beyond her control. This physical and sensory receptivity creates a space of open-ended collaboration and surprise. Watkins works with the elemental forces that shape our world—gravity, suspension, compression, evaporation—embracing flux states and unforeseen results.