Imogen Millard Griffiths - BA (Hons) Fine Art
Exploring death, decay and mortality, Imogen Griffiths uses drawing as a processing of the traumatic death of her father. Combined motifs, expressive marks and fluid gestures materialise the emotive in evocative scenes. She is a mixed media artist who currently focuses on using ink and charcoal to create large scale drawings that map a labyrinth of symbols, memory and mourning. The work attempts to immortalise the ephemerality of remembrance, and her harsh, intuitive marks reflect her struggle with this journey of loss. At such a large scale, the act of drawing becomes a performance in itself. The canvas allows for a more bodily, intense interaction with the process, pushing boundaries of space and vulnerability. To create her drawings, she uses a mix of unconventional and handmade tools such as bamboo, mops, brooms and tape.
Her central piece, is a large scale triptych, each panel measuring just under 500cm x 300cm, In The Dark, Dark Wood represents a difficult journey through bereavement and the imposing struggle of a need for remembering conflicted with a longing to forget. It's name is taken from a children’s ghost story book Imogen’s father read to her as a child. Reminiscing through these short stories allows Imogen to channel this painful grief through her drawings, which act as a sort of ode to those sweeter times, now haunted with an ever-looming presence. The memory of these stories brings an ease to the sorrow, with the characters and motifs Imogen creates as wandering souls navigating through this waxing and waning journey.
