Small Pleasures

"This piece was created as part of a series of particularly small miniature charcoal works in March/April 2021. It depicts a group of old, twisted trees and a face looking out from the forest floor. I am fascinated by how forests are all connected in the spaces we can’t see- with roots, mycelium and earth binding them together and connecting everything, forming symbiotic relationships and ecosystems. I imagined this collective as a character of the woods itself.

I began focusing on making miniatures when locked down in early 2020, with limited materials and working space, at my family home in the South West. I felt a need to examine the feelings of fear and uncertainty the pandemic brought, as well as capture the strangeness of living once again in a childhood home and town, surrounded by nature and remnants of a past self.

Charcoal, an ancient material for mark-making, has been traditionally used to sketch. I have been developing a method where I apply it in thin layers, building depth and space therewith. This technique, when applied to pressed paper, creates an almost pixel-like effect, reminiscent of an old television set or LCD display.

My miniatures speak of a fragmenting of time, landscape and mind, of moments and spaces that feel familiar even if other-worldly. I’ve become very intrigued by the ways in which miniatures allow for a quieter dialogue with the spaces they occupy and the viewer; where one must draw closer, the work functioning as a keyhole into a hidden realm" - Zoë Annesley, 2021
 

Accolades

Education: Slade School of Fine Art, BA (Hons) Fine Art, 2014-18

@a.ploy.within
zoeannesley.com