Rhythm Adjust

"The Warp series was inspired by my time with indigenous Maya communities in Guatemala. The Maya’s have been cultivating and using colour-grown cotton for thousands of years and the particular type that I use is planted locally by the women in the volcanic landscape of Lake Atitlan. They pick, beat, spool and spin the raw cotton into yarn by hand in a completely natural process. The raw cotton used in this piece is one of the 4 native colours that they produce.

The piece is comprised of one cotton yarn piece and an adjacent naturally dyed canvas, also inspired by my time in Central America. Whilst in Guatemala and Mexico I learnt how to use natural dyes and food waste to create organic colour. This piece features a green hue created from a natural dye made from foraged nettle leaves.

This piece relates to the theme of Breath due to the rhythmical natural of stretching the yarn back and forth across the canvas - imitating the action of breath in and out. The use of a natural dye created from the chlorophyll in nettle leaves aims to emphasise the importance of photosynthesis in plants and its vital role in producing oxygen - the element needed for us to breathe." - Becky Allen, 2021

The ritualistic practice of London based artist, Becky Allen, explores drawing as a form of meditative catharsis.Her abstract drawings channel the movement and energy of repetitive mark-making, to create artworks that express a visual record of passage through time.Exploring the slow physicality of creating intricate work through the deep contemplation that the act engenders, Allen presents visual forms of rumination to both express and invoke the spirit of introspection.

Using a rhythmic and measured process that characterizes her drawings, she expresses her fascination with line by employing them meticulously as marks, gestures or traces. Inspired by weaving’s warp and weft, wayfaring paths and the horizon line, her works express the entanglement of line’s manifold associations interwoven throughout human history. She engages meticulously with her materials, labouring to illuminate the invisible properties of her surfaces that arise from organic interactions with natural components. Her work emerges from this intimacy to embody the unpredictable and ethereal that occurs as a profoundly unique dialogue between the artist and her medium.

Accolades

Education: MA Visual Communication, Royal College of Art, 2011 - 13. BA (Hons) Graphic Design, Camberwell College of Arts (UAL), 2008-11

Selected Exhibitions: Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize, Drawing Projects + various UK Galleries, 2020-21. Transatlantico, Mana Contemporary, New Jersey USA, 2020. Pazzo Palazzo, Palazzo Monti, Brescia, Italy, 2019. Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize, Drawing Projects + various UK Galleries, 2019. 10 Years of DRAW RCA, Triforium Gallery, Temple Church, London, 2019.  The Humble Black Line, Frameless Gallery, London, 2019. Jerwood Drawing Prize - Jerwood Space + various UK Galleries, 2017. Modern Penelopes - Palm Tree Gallery London, 2017. Drawing Now - Carreau du Temple Paris (represented by COB Gallery); House of Penelope with Alteria Art, Gallery 46, London, 2017. Girls Only - Ministry of New, Mumbai, 2016.

Awards and residencies: Villa Lena Artist Residency, Tuscany, 2021; Developing Your Creative Practice Grant 2019 - 20, Arts Council England. Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize shortlist, 2018. Jerwood Drawing Prize, Shortlisted, 2017. Thirty for Thirty, BURO, 2014. 4 Emerging Artist Award, 2014. Winner of Augustus Martyn Printmaking Prize, Royal College of Art,  2013. 

www.beckyallen.co.uk
@beckyallendraw