Artist Statement

Róisín Lewis’s work is a response to slow journeys through the landscape.  Rhythm reduces effort, as the mantra goes.  Not stopping to sketch or take photographs, Lewis gathers memories and occasionally objects, as she travels while also using body-worn technology to record audio,  biometric and geographical data.

Back in the studio, data is downloaded and paths travelled are retraced on paper.  Objects gathered in the landscape are studied, drawn and manipulated.  These activities encourage memories, observations and other sensory and rhythmical experiences to resurface, which in turn inform the use of materials, processes and colour.  The work also draws on indigenous building techniques and approaches to textile construction – slow repetitive processes that are analogous to the rhythm of the journeying body, as well as on mapping and surveying techniques.

The work grows through the repetition of simple gestures.  An underlying structure or rule often determines the initial composition and forms often develop in accordance with data collected.  But the artist is not a machine.  Irregularities, accidents and traces of the body that result from making by hand, also play a part.  In this way, the work evolves through a combination of order, memory, chance and intuition.