DIRK COMELLO, 2019
www.dirkcomello.com

My proposal for Residency 108 was concerned with the theme of repetition and detail. I believe that one can only master a certain subject after having observed and drawn it several times. I did this for example with fishes from the farmers market, a dead mouse and cigarette packages I found in the streets of China. Afterwards I'm able to draw such subjects from memory. In a profound way, it feels like I've truly absorbed the matter. There is something special about it that doesn't translate into words very well, but it's akin to the Asian approach to art and aesthetics.

For the residency I took this to the extreme. I went in search of “nature morte” motifs on-site (both organic and non-organic), and drew them one hundred and eight times. This meant I had to limit myself to a maximum of 15 subjects. I couldn’t know in advance what I would find, but I defined what I was looking for. I sought objects that conveyed the Genius Loci of the site, details can tell a lot about a place. I drew these subjects continuously over the duration of the residency, using diverse methods of drawing and painting, but for the sake of uniformity I maintained one size.