Tactile Encounters is Hanna ten Doornkaat’s second solo exhibition with &Gallery.
Experimenting in a different medium, this new body of work includes a series of stitched drawings. Hanna has exchanged her drawing tools for a needle and thick waxed cotton threads. This new process is slower than previous works of repeated drawn and layered pencil lines, yet the concept of investigating the meaning of what constitutes a drawing remains, as well as the recurring geometric shapes often found in her previous works.
The slower pace of the stitching has added a therapeutic and meditative element, where the tactility of the materials used became an important part of it. The handling of the very rigid surface of the jute bags, which are primed with gesso and acrylic or water-soluble oil paints, has created an almost intimate relationship and often painful understanding of the work for her.
“In our digital age, human social interaction is often mediated and the ability to perceive an object that comes into contact with the surface of the skin, is what made me make work with a surface that is sensitive to touch but at the same time acts as a stimulus to the brain when looking at it.
I would like to create a sense of tension between two very different surfaces, the tactile and the non-tactile by juxtaposing a few works on board with a selection of my most recent stitched drawings."
Hanna ten Doornkaat studied sculpture at Kingston University before completing an MA at Wimbledon School of Art (UAL). She is now based in London working from her studio in Kingston.
