Issue #15 - Shane Drinkwater - Iterant

“and even you forgot those brilliant flashes seen from afar” -Ruth Stone

Shane Drinkwater

The art in Issue 15 is produced by Australian artist, Shane Drinkwater. They are acrylic and collage on paper, often repurposed pattern paper. Hints of the paper’s former iteration are sometimes visible through Drinkwater’s personal language of mark-making, which as he says, constitutes “a minimum repertoire of visual elements aiming for a maximum visual intensity.”

I would like this divine october afternoon
to walk along the long shore of the sea;

that the gold sand, and green waters,
and the pure skies watch me pass.

-Alfonsina Storni

Every morning the sea paints itself on from utter blankness
History is a beautiful thing
Many winged and missing bits on all sides

-Anne Gerard

Shane Drinkwater

From The Art Editor

The art in Issue 15 is produced by Australian artist, Shane Drinkwater. They are acrylic and collage on paper, often repurposed pattern paper. Hints of the paper’s former iteration are sometimes visible through Drinkwater’s personal language of mark-making, which as he says, constitutes “a minimum repertoire of visual elements aiming for a maximum visual intensity.” He uses iconic primary colors, whites and blacks, and allows the paper substrate to provide texture and depth. Complex astronomical, cartographic and armillary-sphere-esque strata emerge, and supply their own internal logic and topographies. The images show complex possibilities for locating ourselves in vast cosmologies, both fantastic and real. If one can provide their own compass (imaginary, or otherwise), they are all set for a poetic kind of triangulation.

The material and symbols Drinkwater employs carry layers of meaning within themselves; whether the history of the ‘found’ paper, or the use of arrows, numeric motifs, and mandala shapes. But one of the special things about his work is that it offers the opportunity to develop novel or localized relationship to iconic colors or recognizeable marks— and this personal, iterative act of translation creates an abundant thesaurus in lieu of a rote dictionary. (See also the selection of excellent translations in this issue: Alfonsina Storni translated by John Yohe, and Ioana Vintilă translated by Clara Burghelea).

The possibilities of meaning in Drinkwater’s work amplify again when seen in relationship to other art, image or poetry— they become archetypal in a way. While it remains an imperfect science, curating and placing his diagrammatic and enigmatic works for this issue was a real exercise in playful possibility! The pairings with poetry by Hieu Nguyen (pg. 40-41) and James Croal Jackson (pg. 78-79) are two of my favorites, this go-around.

Its also hard to ignore the wondrous strangeness of Drinkwater’s images juxtaposed with the selection of America-na-na [editor’s wordplay] by Brandon Downing, and too how fitting with the marvelous pathways of Lisa Huffaker’s flow-chart, drawn erasure poems. Indeed— where are we headed? Where even are we? What cosmic and terrestrial forces will we encounter this year? Next? What moves, and what stays still? What revolutions lay in wait, which evolutions will emerge?
Shane says, “ideas and images appear through the making of the work, language becomes unnecessary, I let the work speak for me.” So, then we are invited to let the work speak to us.
Welcome to Issue 15, ‘midnight solace of the petty bourgeois.’
-Candace Jensen, Art Editor

*All images in this issue (selections by contributors Brandon Downing and Lisa Huffaker excepted) are works on paper by Shane Drinkwater. Images and biographic details are courtesy of the artist, PULP Gallery in Holyoke, MA (https://pulpholyoke.com/) and Cavin Morris Gallery, New York (https://cavinmorris.com/)

Artist Bio

Tasmanian born artist Shane Drinkwater has exhibited widely within Australia and is now represented overseas by:

-Cavin Morris Gallery, New York USA
-Pulp Gallery, Massachusetts, USA
-Gagné Contemporary, Toronto, Canada
-Coag Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark where in 2021, The Museum of the Mind (located in the Hermitage Amsterdam) purchased 9 of his works for their collection then showed 3 in the exhibition “Obsession for numbers and schedules” SEPT 2022 - AUG 2023.

Shane studied for 3 years at the University of Tasmania, School of Art in Hobart and one year at the National Art School in Sydney. He has lived in Queensland since 1994, after time spent in Paris: as recipient of the Alliance Françoise/Australia council fellowship he had access to studio space near the Bastille for 4 months in 1988. He went back and stayed on another 6 years…

When talking about what painting means to him, Shane states: “Painting is something I’ve always needed to do and I’m enjoying it more and more: it’s the joy of putting color, shape and gesture on a surface. I’m interested in the making! I delve into the act of painting with a minimum repertoire of visual elements aiming for a maximum intensity, working with a visual language of lines, dashes, dots, to create works that seem like mysterious coded systems. Some works read almost as topographical or astronomical maps, others as keys of symbols, arranged and categorized.

Texture is also an important part of my work, particularly on paper. Ideas and images appear through the making of the work, language becomes unnecessary, I let the work speak for me.”

https://www.instagram.com/shane_drinkwater
https://shanedw.wixsite.com/shanedrinkwater