I am primarily engaged in making drawings which test the limits of visibility and material existence. My delicate and elusive drawings of garments ask: at what point does visibility disappear and drawing become immaterial? My practice reflects a fascination with the unseen, untouchable and unspoken in human encounters. The works seek to taunt or tease the viewer with an allure of intimacies offered,
I am primarily engaged in making drawings which test the limits of visibility and material existence. My delicate and elusive drawings of garments ask: at what point does visibility disappear and drawing become immaterial? My practice reflects a fascination with the unseen, untouchable and unspoken in human encounters. The works seek to taunt or tease the viewer with an allure of intimacies offered, yet denied. Drawing is a means of exploring what it means to see, touch and feel experiences on the edge of our grasp. Notebooks and fieldwork are an important element of my practice. Over the past three years I have been attempting to draw in different challenging environments, working alongside archaeologists, medical practitioners and conservators to see what the activity of drawing may share with these other practices that must negotiate the delicate to reveal the unseen. An example of this is work made in response to visits to the dress collections at Kensington Palace, where I have been working with their curators to observe how intimate items of underwear are stored, handled and viewed. In the emerging work, the drawn mark manifests some of the curatorial concerns around these objects, specifically the potential for care and destruction latent in human touch. For instance some of these drawings are made in wax with the pressure of touch alone, so like the collections' objects, are sensitive to their environmental conditions. If they get too hot, or are exposed to too much sunlight, they will simply fade away.
Qualifications and training
2012 - PhD Fine Art , Lancaster University, Lancaster
2007 - MA Fine Art (distinction), Lancaster University
Making
Solo exhibitions
2019 - Absent Presence- A wedding Dress and the drawings of Sarah Casey, MLC Centre, Ryerson University Toronto
2019 - Ruskin's Good Looking , Brantwood , Coniston, Cumbria
2016- Our Imperceptible Universe, Blyth Gallery, London
2015- Dark Matters: Our Imperceptible Universe, Peter Scott gallery, Lancaster
2015- Common Grounds: Lace Drawn From the Everyday, The Bowes Museum, County Durham.
2013 - Hidden Drawers, Kensington Palace, London
2012 - Drawing the Delicate, Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster
2010 - Glimpses, Roadside Attractions Gallery, Toronto
2008 - Godiva Chronicles, Glassbox Gallery, Coventry
Group exhibitions
2019-20 Museum of the Near Future, Ruskin Library and Reserach Centre, Lancaster, UK
2019 - From Devils Darkness, Manchester Metropolitan University Special Collections, UK
2018 You and I are Continuous Beings, Birmingham City University, Birmingham
2017 The Nth Degree, Foundry Arts Center, Missouri, USA
2017 Brink Open, Brink, London
2015 Paper, table wall and after, University of the Arts Taipei, Taiwan
2015 Drawing Conversations, Coventry University, Coventry, UK
2015 - Beyond Perception, The University of Aberdeen, UK
2014- The Jerwood Drawing Prize 2014, Jerwood Space, London and touring
2013 - Open Drawing , Salisbury Arts Centre, Salisbury
2013 - Darkness at the Edge, Propeller Visual Arts Centre, Toronto
2013 - Sketch 2013: Open Sketchbook Drawing Prize, Rabley Drawing Centre and touring, Marlborough, UK
2013 - Surfaces in The Making, The Storey , Lancaster
2011 - Sketch Drawing Prize 2011, Rabley Drawing Centre, Marlborough, UK
2010 - Box of Desires, Centre for Recent Drawing, London
2010 - Here Today Gone Tomorrow, Fringe, Bath, UK
2010 - Open Drawing, Centrespace Gallery, Bristol
2010 - Paperworks 3, Bury Museum and Art Gallery, Bury, UK
2010 - The Middle of Nowhere, Departure Gallery, London
2010 - The Moment of Privacy Has Passed, Usher Gallery, Lincoln
2009 - 5th International Drawing Biennale, Melbourne, Australia and touring 2009 - A Things About Machines, Herbert Gallery, Coventry
2009 - The Art of Research, Taik, University of Art and Design, Helsinki, Finland
2009 - Unfolding, Chapel Gallery, Ormskirk, UK
Awards
2014 Shortlisted Jerwood Drawing Prize 2014
2009 Public Award: 5th International Drawing Biennale, Melbourne, Australia
Writing
Books
2020 Casey, S. and Davies, G. Drawing Investigations: Graphic Relationships with Science, Culture and Environment (London & New York: Bloomsbury).
Journal Articles
2017 Casey, S, 'Book Review of "What do Drawing and Painting Really Mean?" by Paul Crowther' in Journal of Visual Arts Practice
2017 Casey, S. 'Materiality of Nothing: Symposium Report' in Journal of Drawing Research Theory Practice Volume 2 Issue 1 (Bristol: Intellect)
2016 Casey, S.’ The Queer Intimacy of Drawing’ in TRACEY Journal of Drawing
Visualization (Loughborough; Drawing Research Network) ISSN 1742-3570
2016 Casey, S. & Davies G ‘Drawing as Babel Fish’, International Journal of Illustration,
(London: Intellect). ISSN: 20520204 (Print) ISSN: 20520212 (Online)
2015 *Casey, S. Drawn to the Surface in Coleman, R. & Oakley-Brown, E. (eds.) Theorizing
the Surface edition of Theory, Culture and Society (London: Sage) 12 minute video
essay.
2015 Casey, S. and Davies, G. ‘Lines of Engagement: Drawing Walking Tracking’ , Journal of
Visual Arts Practice
2014 Casey, S. and Davies, G. ‘A Garland of Thoughts: Ruskin and Contemporary Site/
Sight Sensitive Drawing’ in TRACEY The Journal of Drawing Research March 2014)
Book Chapters
2018 Casey, S. & Davies G., 'Drawing Out The Mute: Speaking Through Drawing' in Gorrill, H. and Journaux, J. (eds.) Drawing Conversations: Collective and Collaborative Drawing in Contemporary Practice (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars)
2017 Casey, S. & Davies G., ‘Drawn away from Vision’ in Heywood, I (ed.) The Senses in Art and Design’ (London: Bloomsbury)
2014 Casey, S., ‘Drawing: A Delicate Issue’ in The International Drawing Annual Vol. 8 (Ohio: Manifest Centre for Drawing), pp. 17-22
2012 Casey, S., ‘Laying Practice on the Line’ in The Art of Research Vol. 2 Processes, Results, Contributions, ed. by Maarit Makela and Tim O’Reilly (London: Chelsea School of Art and Helsinki: University of Art and Design, 2012) pp. 156-177
2011 Casey, S., ‘Across the White Expanse’ in Arctic Dialogues: Conversations between Art and Science ed. by Jane Rushton and Crispin Hallsall (Lancaster: Lancaster University, 2010) pp.8-11
Conference Papers
?2018 'Touching and Tracing: The Peculiar Sensibility of Drawing in the Textiles Archive' Art Materiality and Representation, British Museum, London, 1-3 June 2018
2017 'Drawing the Dress Collection: An artists perspective' at Cloth Cultures: Future Legacies of Dorothy K. Burnham, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 10-12 November 2017.
2017 'Hidden Drawers: a case study in drawing royal underwear' at The Space Between: Body-Psyche-Skin-Environment, Royal College of Art, February 3rd 2017.
2016 'Drawing and the Depictive Turn’ European Association for the study of Science & Technology (EASST) Barcelona 31 August -3rd Sept 2016.
2015 ‘Shared Sensibilities: Drawing in partnership with other fields of enquiry’ at Drawing Research Network Conference 2015 (Coventry: Coventry University) 4th December 2015
2015 Casey, S. & Ellis, R., ‘Porous Topologies of (im)perceptibility as creative process’, Royal Geographical Society Conference, Exeter, 2015
2015 Casey, S. and Davies., G,’ Drawing Sensing Sighting Sounding’ , American Association of Geographers Conference, Chicago
2014 Casey, S. and Davies, G, ‘ Crossing the Line: Drawing as Babel Fish’ , The Itinerant Illustrator International Conference 2014, Srishti School Art & Design, Bangalore India
2013 Casey, S. and Davies., G, ‘Walking the Line: An Introduction’, Walking the Line, Lancaster University, 2nd July 2013
2011 ‘Evading Capture: Dialogues between the unknown and the unseen in the artist’s sketchpad and the scientific experiment’, Recto Verso: Redefining the Sketchbook, University of Lincoln, February 2011.
2010 ‘Drawing the Delicate’ Drawing Research Network Conference 2010: Observation, Mapping, Dialogue, University of Brighton, UK, October 2010.
2010 ‘Invisible Lines and Parallel Practice’, European Association of Science Studies Conference, Trento University, Italy, September 2010.
2009 ‘Drawing Delicate Connections’, Interrogations: Creative Interdisciplinarity in Art & Design Research, Loughborough University, UK, June 2009.
Funding awards
2018 Being Human Festival
2017 Arts Council England and British Council Artist's International Development Award
2016 Being Human Festival Award
2015 Institute of Physics Public Engagement Award
2015 Lancaster University FASS Impact and Knowledge Exchange Award
2014 AHRC Science in Culture innovation award (CO-I , Rebecca Ellis - PI)
2014 Lancaster University Small Grant Award for Common Grounds
2011 Lancaster University Small Grant Award for Hidden Drawers
2009 Peel Scholarship Award
2009 Student Prize: AHRC Interrogations Conference