Louise Harley

I don’t believe there’s a single thing that cannot be drawn.

That, right there, is my belief about living, because I have always related to the world by drawing it. Drawing is so utterly fundamental. It predates words.

Almost all of my work, whether it’s drawings, paintings, sculptures or installations, arises initially out of small drawings, usually on small scraps of paper, often on post-it notes, which act as wordless catchers for an idea forming. Drawing, in this sense, is a form of happy entrapment.

Starting from this base I work through ideas and iterations to create a visual structure, often incorporating ambiguity, often created out of a duality of form or idea, or of narrative versus moment, and based on themes of relationships, space, the body and proprioception, human experience, secrecy and belief. My work is expressive with a formalist core.

My aim is to create work that requires time and care in observation, but it arises out of moments.

The moment that begets the work is the moment that’s more significant than others.