Sarah Casey

Artist statement

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 in recent work 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.