Jeannie Driver

Artist Statement

Driver’s post minimalist works utilise materials and metaphorical references to present works as drawing, installation, sculpture, and film. Fascinated by how paper is able to transverse both the 2D and 3D , ‘Lifting the Drawing off the Page’ is a body of works developed from geometric drawings on the page that utilise systems, materials and measurements to create transient, 'un-fixed', installations that shift in time and space.

An interest in sequence and repetition flows throughout her work, in both the utilitarian material and processes. Traditional drawing materials of charcoal, graphite and paper occupy a dominant presence; as line becomes object, dust becomes surface, and space as form. Created in scale relationship to her own body, the wall installations are presented as an experience for the viewer to navigate.

Driver’s expanded drawings are ‘unfixed’ and present in phases to create a works that shift over time. The works are an invitation. Contained in crates, lines await with instructions, a template and a phased drawing plan. spikes line up to puncture time, lines rise and fall like the breath, quivering in the breeze, they are not still, they are a conversation.

Jeannie Driver. (B. London, 1966) Driver's installations and works have been exhibited nationally in commercial and public galleries. Solo exhibitions include, Degrees of Ambiguity, CourtX, Manifestations of a Cube, Jack House Gallery, When Contents Become Form, Arbyte Gallery., Hackney Wick. Duo exhibitions include Dazzle + Disrupt, Quay Arts, IOW and Ubiquitous Materials, SHP. Selected group shows include Edge to Edge, Cello Factory, Waterloo, Iterations, Art House 1, Bermondsey, FOUND, Woolff Gallery, London, and Preparing the Site, Bank Gallery, Whitechapel. Site Specific installations include Lines of Passage at Salisbury Arts Centre. Artist time and space residencies include ASPEX gallery and Art Studios Oxford.

Working in cycle’s of ten years, Driver’s practise morphs and shifts. Common threads emerge and re-emerge. Drawing, and the line have a consistent presence as both form and metaphor. Processes are imbued with repetition and purpose. Reoccurring questions can be seen throughout her archive including a ‘responsibility to materials’. Context and space is always considered as is the relationship between artwork and audience.

For older works visit http://www.jeanniedriver.com/home/archive