Declan Woods

Artist Statement

The visiting of places unfamiliar to me is essential to my artistic practice and has fuelled research into areas surrounding ‘being in place’. Once in a place of unfamiliarity I reflect upon the awareness of my own physical presence, and the former perception of the place as well as what it is to experience unfamiliarity. To try and further this understanding I relate back to Hubert Dreyfus’ ‘Being in the world’ and James Lovelock’s publication ‘Gaia: A new look at life on Earth’, in the hope of an explanation as to why these thoughts and feelings of anxiety, self-awareness and paranoia arise once in unfamiliar territories. Drawing becomes the medium in which the experience of being ‘out of place’ is expressed. The method of drawing in such a meticulous fashion is a way of slowing down the world, an almost meditative act. The marks made are direct translations of photographic resources of places experienced, along with memories of feelings towards the experience.

‘When someone calls our attention to the fact that “in” also has an existential sense which expresses involvement, as in being in love, being in business, or being in the theatre, we tend to think of this as a metaphorical derivation from physical inclusion.’

Dreyfus, H. (1990) Being-in-the-world: A Commentary on Heidegger’s Being and Time, Division I. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.